
Class T/S" 

Book W 707 
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coehegkt deposit. 



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THE WRIGHT AEROPLANE IN FRANCE IN I908. 

It will be seen that there are Wo passengers on the aeroplane, one bnng Mr. 
Wilbur Wright, the other a pupil. 



The Conquest of 
Time and Space 



BY 

HENRY SMITH WILLIAMS, M.D., LL.D 

M 



ASSISTED BY 

EDWARD H. WILLIAMS, M.D. 



NEW YORK and LONDON 

THE GOODHUE COMPANY 

Publishers - mdccccxi 






1 



^ 



3 



& 



Copyright. 1910, by The Goodhue Co. 
Copyright, iqn, by The Goodhue Co. 



A II rights reserved 






CI.A309140 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 

THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

Geographical knowledge of the ancient Egyptians, p. 5 — The 
mariner's compass, p. 7 — Reference to the thirty-two points of 
the compass by Chaucer, p. 9 — Halley's observations on the 
changes in the direction of the compass in a century, p. 10 — 
Deviation of the compass, p. 11 — The voyage of the Carnegie, the 
non-magnetic ship, p. 12 — The "dip of the needle" first observed 
by Robert Norman, p. 13 — The modern compass invented by 
Lord Kelvin, p. 14 — Sailing by dead reckoning, p. 14 — The inven- 
tion of the "log," p. 15 — The modern log, p. 17 — The development 
of the sextant, p. 18 — The astrolabe, p. 19 — The quadrant invented 
by Hadley, p. 20 — The perfected sextant, p. 21 — Perfecting the 
chronometer, p. 23 — The timepieces invented by the British 
carpenter, John Harrison, p. 25 — The prize won by Harrison, p. 
27 — Finding time without a chronometer, p. 28 — The Nautical 
Almanac, p. 30 — Ascertaining the ship's longitude, p. 31 — Diffi- 
culties of "taking the sun" at noon, p. ^t, — Measuring a degree of 
latitude, p. 34 — The observations of Robert Norman, p. 35 — 
The function of the Nautical Almanac, p. 37 — Soundings and 
charts, p. 41 — Mercator's projection, p. 44 — The lure of the un- 
known, p. 45 — The quest of the Pole, p. 47 — Commander Peary's 
achievement, p. 49 — How observations are made in arctic regions, 
p. 50 — Making observations at the Pole, p. 52 — Difficulties as to 
direction at the Pole, p. 54. 

CHAPTER II 

THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS 

Use of sails in ancient times, p. 56 — Ships with many banks of 
oars, p. 57 — Mediaeval ships, p. 59 — Modern sailing ships, p. 60 — 
The sailing record of The Sovereign of the Seas, p. 60 — Early 
attempts to invent a steamboat, p. 63 — Robert Fulton's Clermont, 
p. 64 — The steamboat of Blasco de Gary, p. 66 — The Charlotte 
Dundas, p. 67 — The steamboat invented by Col. John Stevens, 

[iii] 



CONTENTS 

p. 68 — Pulton designs the Clermont, p. 71 — The historic trip of 
the Clermont up the Hudson, p. 71 — Sea-going steamships, p. 73 — 
Ships built of iron and steel, p. 74 — The Great Eastern, p. 76 — 
Principal dimensions of the Great Eastern, p. 78 — Twin-screw- 
vessels, p. 80 — The triumph of the turbine, p. 81 — The Lusitania 
and Mauretania, p. 82 — Submarine signalling, p. 83 — The rescue 
of the Republic, p. 84 — How the submarine signalling device works, 
p. 86 — The Olympic and Titanic, p. 90 — Liquid fuel, p. 90 — 
Advantages and disadvantages of liquid fuel, p. 91. 



CHAPTER III 

SUBMARINE VESSELS 

Slow development of submarine navigation, p. 93 — The first 
submarine, p. 94 — Description of David Bushmen's boat, p. 94 — 
Attempts to sink a war vessel during the American Revolution, p. 
97 — Robert Fulton's experiments, p. 98- — The attack on the 
Argus by Fulton's submarine, p. 100 — The attack upon the Ramilles 
in 1813, p. 102 — A successful diving boat, p. 103 — The sinking of 
the Housatonic, p. 104 — Recent submarines and submersibles, 
p. 105 — The Holland, p. 106 — The Lake type of boat, p. 108 — 
Problems to be overcome in submarine navigation, p. 109 — 
Present status of submarine boats, p. 111 — The problem of seeing 
without being seen, p. 113 — The experimental attacks upon the 
cruiser Yankee in 1908, p. 115 — The possibility of using aero- 
planes for detecting the presence of submarines, p. 117. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 

The earliest railroad, p. 119 — The substitution of flanged wheels 
for flanged rails, p. 120 — The locomotive of Richard Trevithick, 
p. 121 — The cable road of Chapman, p. 123 — Stephenson solves 
the problem, p. 124 — Versatility of Stephenson, p. 125 — His 
early locomotives, p. 126 — Stephenson's locomotive of 1825, p. 
127 — The first passenger coach, p. 128 — The Liverpool and Man- 
chester Railway projected, p. 129 — Conditions named for testing 
the competing locomotives, p. 130 — The Rocket and other contest- 
ants, p. 132 — Description of the Rocket, p. 133 — Improvements on 
the construction of the Rocket, p. 134 — Improvements in locomo- 
tives in recent years, p. 135 — The compound locomotive, p. 137 — 
Advantages of compound locomotives, p. 138 — The Westinghouse 
air brake, p. 141 — The "straight air brake," p. 143 — The automatic 
air brake, p. 144 — The high-speed air brake, p. 146 — Automatic 

[iv] 



CONTENTS 

couplings, p. 147 — Principle of the Janney coupling, p. 149- 
comparison — the old and the new, p. 150. 



CHAPTER V 

FROM CART TO AUTOMOBILE 

When were carts first used? p. 152 — The development of the 
bicycle, p. 154 — The pneumatic tire introduced, p. 155 — The 
coming of the automobile, p. 156 — The gas engine of Dr. Otto, 
p. 157 — Cugnot's automobile, p. 158 — The automobile of William 
Murdoch, 1785, p. 158 — Opposition in England to the introduction 
of automobiles, p. 159 — An extraordinary piece of legislation, 
p. 161 — Scientific aspects of automobile racing, p. 164 — Some 
records made at Ormonde, p. 165 — Records made by Oldfield in 
19 10, p. 166 — Comparative speeds of various vehicles and animals, 
p. 167 — Speed of birds in flight, p. 168 — A miraculous transforma- 
tion of energy, p. 170 — Electrical timing device for measuring 
automobile speeds, p. 171. 

CHAPTER VI 

THE DEVELOPMENT OP ELECTRIC RAILWAYS 

New York the first city to have a street railway, p. 175 — Cable 
systems, p. 177 — Early self -sustained systems, p. 178 — The electro- 
magnetic locomotive of Moses G. Farmer, p. 179 — The efforts of 
Professor Page to produce a storage battery car, p. 180 — The 
experiments of Siemens and Halske with electric motors, p. 181 — 
The Edison electric locomotive, p. 182 — Third rails and trolleys, p. 
184 — The inventions of Daft and Van Depoele, p. 185 — The work 
of Frank J. Sprague in developing electric railways, p. 186 — How 
the word "trolley" was coined, p. 187 — Storage battery systems, 
p. 188 — The Edison storage battery car of 19 10, p. 189 — Monorail 
systems, p. 191 — Electric aerial monorail systems, p. 193. 

CHAPTER VII 

THE GYROCAR 

Mr. Louis Brennan's car exhibited before the Royal Society in 
London, p. 195 — How the gyroscope is installed on this car, p. 196 — 
Gyroscopic action explained, p. 197 — Why does the spinning wheel 
exert gyroscopic power? p. 199 — Mr. Brennan's model car, p. 200 — 
The "wabble" of the gyroscope explained, p. 202 — How the 
Brennan gyroscopes work, p. 203 — Technical explanation of the 
gyroscope, p. 204 — The evolution of an idea, p. 213 — Sir Henry 

[v] 



CONTENTS 

Bessemer's experiment, p. 214 — What may be expected of the 
gyrocar, p. 215. 

CHAPTER VIII 

THE GYROSCOPE AND OCEAN TRAVEL 

Bessemer's costly experiment, p. 217 — Dr. Schlick's successful 
experiment, p. 219 — The action of Dr. Schlick's invention ex- 
plained, p. 220 — Did gyroscopic action wreck the Viper? p. 222 — 
Theoretical dangers of the gyroscope, p. 223 — Probable use of the 
gyroscope on battleships, p. 225. 

CHAPTER IX 

NAVIGATING THE AIR 

Some mediaeval traditions about airships, p. 266 — The flying 
machines devised by Leonardo da Vinci, p. 277 — The flying machine 
of Besnier, p. 228 — The discovery of hydrogen gas and its effect 
upon aeronautics, p. 230 — The balloon invented, p. 231 — The 
first successful balloon ascension, p. 232 — Rozier, the first man 
to make an ascent in a balloon, p. 235 — Blanchard's attempt 
to produce a dirigible balloon, p. 238 — Hot-air balloons and hydro- 
gen-gas balloons, p. 240 — Rozier, the first victim of ballooning, 
p. 241 — Progress in mechanical flight, p. 244 — Cocking's parachute, 
p. 245 — Henson's studies of the lifting power of plane surfaces, 
p. 246 — The flying machine of Captain Le Bris, p. 248 — Giffard 
"the Fulton of aerial navigation," p. 251 — The flights of the 
Giant, p. 252 — The record flight of John Wise in 1859, p. 256 — 
Early war balloons and dirigible balloons, p. 257 — The use of 
balloons during the Franco- Prussian war, p. 258 — The dirigible 
balloon achieved, p. 262 — The dirigible balloon of Dupuy de 
Lome, p. 263 — The aluminum balloon of Herr Schwartz, p. 264 — 
The dirigible balloons of Count Zeppelin, p. 266 — Early experi- 
ments of Santos-Dumont, p. 267. 



CHAPTER X 

THE TRIUMPH OF THE AEROPLANE 

Balloon versus aeroplane, p. 272 — The kite as a flying machine, 
p. 273 — How the air sustains a heavier-than-air mechanism, 
p. 274 — Langley's early experiments, p. 275 — Experiments in 
soaring, p. 277 — Lilienthal's imitation of the soaring bird, p. 279 — 

[vi] 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Sir Hiram Maxim's flying machine, p. 283 — Langley's successful 
aerodrome, p. 284 — The failure of Langley's larger aerodrome, 
p. 287 — Wilbur and Orville Wright accomplish the impossible, 
p. 288 — The first public demonstration by the Wright brothers, 
p. 290 — The Wright aeroplane described, p. 291 — A host of imita- 
tors, p. 292 — Mr. Henry Farman's successful flights, p. 293 — 
Public demonstrations by the Wright brothers in America and 
France, p. 293 — The English Channel crossed by Bleriot, p. 294 — 
Orville Wright fulfils the Government tests, p. 295 — Spectacular 
cross-country flights, p. 296 — The Wright brothers the true pioneers, 
p. 300. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

THE WRIGHT AEROPLANE IN FRANCE IN 1908 . . . Frontispiece 

"taking the sun" with the sextant .... Facing page 22 

THE OLD AND THE NEW A CONTRAST 60 

MARINE ENGINES AND AN EARLY TYPE OF STEAM- 
BOAT " 64 

THE STEAMSHIPS "CHARLOTTE DUNDAS " AND " CLER- 
MONT" " 68 

THE "CLERMONT" " 72 

ROBERT FULTON " 98 

THE AMERICAN SUBMARINE BOAT " CUTTLEFISH" IN 

DRY DOCK AT THE BROOKLYN NAVY YARD ... " 108 
A FLEET OF BRITISH SUBMARINES MANEUVERING AT 

THE SURFACE " 1 16 

GEORGE STEPHENSON " 124 

A CENTURY'S PROGRESS IN LOCOMOTIVE BUILDING . " 128 
CUGNOT'S TRACTION ENGINE AND THE " NOVELTY " 

LOCOMOTIVE " 132 

THE FAMOUS LOCOMOTIVES " ROCKET " AND " SANS- 

PAREIL" " 134 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LOCOMOTIVE .... " 1 50 
THE HOBBY-HORSE OF 182O CONTRASTED WITH THE 

MOTOR CYCLE OF TO-DAY " 154 

THE EVOLUTION OF THE BICYCLE " 156 

THE EXTREMES OF AUTOMOBILE DEVELOPMENT . . . " 1 58 
AN ENGLISH STEAM COACH OF 1827 AND A NEW YORK 

TAXICAB OF 1909 " 162 

[Vii] 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



A racing automobile Facing page 166 

RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT IN TRANSPORTATION 

THE DE WITT CLINTON TRAIN AND THE GYROCAR . " 200 
TWO VIEWS OP MR. LOUIS BRENNAN's MONORAIL GYRO- 
CAR " 2l6 

AN INTERNATIONAL BALLOON RACE " 242 

TWO FAMOUS FRENCH WAR BALLOONS " 264 

THE ZEPPELIN DIRIGIBLE BALLOON " 266 

AN ENGLISH DIRIGIBLE BALLOON " 268 

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN DIRIGIBLE WAR BALLOONS 

AND A WRIGHT AEROPLANE " 270 

THE AEROPLANE OF M. SANTOS-DUMONT " 272 

LEARNING HOW TO FLY " 278 

FLYING MACHINES OF THE MONOPLANE TYPE ... " 284 

THE WRIGHT AEROPLANE " 288 

MR. WILBUR WRIGHT PREPARING TO ASCEND IN HIS 

AEROPLANE WITH HIS PUPIL M. CASSANDIER . . " 292 

THE FARMAN AEROPLANE " 294 

THE MONOPLANES OF BLERIOT AND LATHAM .... " 296 

A BRITISH AEROPLANE M 298 

MR. WILBUR WRIGHT FLYING OVER NEW YORK HAR- 
BOR, OCTOBER 4, 1909 " 300 



[viu] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

INTRODUCTION 

THE preceding volume dealt with the general 
principles of application and transformation 
of the powers of Nature through which 
the world's work is carried on. In the present volume 
we are chiefly concerned with man's application of 
the same principles in his efforts to set at defiance, so 
far as may be, the limitations of time and space. 

Something has already been said as to the contrast 
between the material civilization of to-day and that of 
the generations prior to the nineteenth century. The 
transformation in methods of agriculture and manu- 
facture has been referred to somewhat in detail. Now 
we have to do with contrasts that are perhaps even 
more vivid, since they concern conditions that come 
within the daily observation of everyone. Steamships, 
locomotives, electric cars, and automobiles, are such 
commonplaces of every-day life that it is difficult to 
conceive a world in which they have no part. Yet 
everyone is aware that all these mechanisms are in- 
ventions of the nineteenth century. Meantime the 
aeroplane, which bids fair to rival those other means of 

VOL. VII. — I [ I 1 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

transportation in the near future, is a creation of the 
twentieth century. 

In order to visualize the contrast between the prac- 
tical civilization of to-day and that of our grandparents, 
it suffices to recall that the first steam locomotive that 
carried passengers over a railway was put in operation 
in the year 1829; and that the first ship propelled by 
steam power alone did not cross the ocean until 1838. 
Not until well towards the middle of the nineteenth 
century, then, were the conditions of transportation 
altered materially from what they had been since the 
very dawn of civilization, — conditions under which one 
hundred miles constituted about the maximum extent 
of a hard day's land journey. 

The elaboration of railway and steamship lines 
through which nearly all portions of the habitable 
globe have been made accessible, has constituted one 
of the most remarkable examples of economic develop- 
ment that man has ever achieved. It requires but the 
slightest use of the imagination to realize with some meas- 
ure of vividness the extent to which the entire structure 
of present-day civilization is based upon this elabora- 
tion of means of transportation. To point but a single 
illustration, the entire central and western portion of 
the United States must have remained a wilderness for 
decades or centuries had not the steam locomotive 
made communication easy between these regions and 
the seaboard. 

Contrariwise no such development of city life as that 
which we see throughout Christendom would have 
been possible but for the increased facilities, due pri- 

[2] 



INTRODUCTION 

marily to locomotives and steamships, for bringing all 
essential food-stuffs from distant regions. 

What this all means when applied on a larger scale 
may be suggested by the reflection that the entire 
character of the occupation of the average resident of 
England has been changed within a century. A century 
ago England was a self-supporting nation, in the sense 
that it produced its own food-stuffs. To-day the popu- 
lation of England as a whole is dependent upon food 
shipped to it from across the oceans. Obviously such 
a transformation could never have been effected had 
not the application of steam revolutionized the entire 
character of transportation. 

Far-reaching as are the economic aspects of the prob- 
lem of transportation, this extraordinary revolution, 
the effects of which are visible on every side, has been 
brought about by the application of only a few types of 
mechanisms. The steam engine, the dynamo, and the 
gas engine are substantially responsible for the entire 
development in question. In the succeeding pages, 
which deal with the development of steamships, loco- 
motives, automobiles, and flying machines, we have 
to do with the application of principles with which our 
previous studies have made us familiar; and in par- 
ticular with the mechanisms that have engaged our 
attention in the preceding volume. Yet the applica- 
tion of these principles and the utilization of these 
mechanisms gave full opportunity for the exercise of 
inventive ingenuity, and the story of the development 
of steamships, locomotives, electric vehicles, automo- 
biles, gyro cars, and flying machines, will be found to 

[3] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

have elements of interest commensurate with the 
importance of these mechanisms themselves. Before 
we take up these stories in detail, however, we shall 
briefly review the story of geographical discovery 
and exploration in its scientific aspects. 



[4] 



THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

THE contrast between modern and ancient 
times is strikingly suggested by reflection 
on the limited range of geographical knowl- 
edge of those Oriental and Classical nations who 
dominated the scene at that remote period which we are 
accustomed to characterize as the dawn of history. 
The Egyptians, peopling the narrow valley of the Nile, 
scarcely had direct dealings with any people more re- 
mote than the Babylonians and Assyrians occupying 
the valley of the Euphrates. Babylonians and Assy- 
rians in turn were in touch with no Eastern civilization 
more remote than that of Persia and India, and knew 
nothing of any Western world beyond the borders of 
Greece. Greeks and Romans, when in succession they 
came to dominate the world stage, — developing a 
civilization which even as viewed from our modern 
vantage-ground seems marvelous, — were still confined 
to narrow strips of territory about the shores of the 
Mediterranean, and had but the vaguest notions as to 
any other regions of the earth. 

In the later classical period, to be sure, the globe was 
subjected, as we have seen, to wonderful measure- 
ments by Eratosthenes and by Posidonius, and the 
fact that man's abiding place is a great ball utterly 

[5] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

different from the world as conceived by the Oriental 
mind, was definitely grasped and became more or less 
a matter of common knowledge. It was even conceived 
that there might be a second habitable zone on the 
opposite side of the equator from the region in which 
the Greeks and Romans found themselves, but as to just 
what this hypothetical region might be like, and as to 
what manner of beings might people it, even the most 
daring speculator made no attempt to decide. The 
more general view, indeed, precluded all thought of 
habitable regions lying beyond the confines of the 
Mediterranean civilization; conceiving rather that the 
world beyond was a mere waste of waters. 

Doubtless the imaginative mind of the period must 
have chafed under these restrictions of geographical 
knowledge; and now and again a more daring naviga- 
tor must have pressed out beyond the limits of safety, 
into the Unknown, never to return. Once at least, 
even in the old Egyptian days, a band of navigators 
surpassing in daring all their predecessors, and their 
successors of the ensuing centuries, made bold to con- 
tinue their explorations along the coast of Africa till 
they had passed to a region where — as Herodotus re- 
lates with wonder — the sun appeared "on their right 
hand," ultimately passing about the southern ex- 
tremity of the African continent and in due course 
completing the circumnavigation, returning with wonder 
tales to excite the envy, perhaps, but not the emulation 
of their fellows. 

Then in due course some Phoenician or Greek navi- 
gators coasted along the northern shores beyond the 

[6] 



THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

"Pillars of Hercules" and discovered at the very con- 
fines of the world what we now term the British Isles. 
But this was the full extent of exploration throughout 
antiquity; and the spread of civilization about the 
borders of the known world was a slow and haphazard 
procedure during all those centuries that mark the 
Classical and Byzantine periods. 

THE MARINER'S COMPASS 

The change came with that revival of scientific 
learning which was to usher in the new era that we speak 
of as modern times. And here as always it was a 
practical mechanism that gave the stimulus to new 
endeavor. In this particular case the implement in 
question was the mariner's compass, which consists, 
in its essentials, as everyone is aware, of a magnetized 
needle floated or suspended in such a way that it is 
made under the influence of terrestrial magnetism to 
point to the north and south. 

The mysterious property whereby the magnetized 
needle obeys this inscrutable impulse is, in the last 
analysis, inexplicable even to the science of our day. 
But the facts, in their cruder relations, had been familiar 
from time immemorial to a nation whose habitat lay 
beyond the ken of the classical world — namely, the 
Chinese. It seems to be fairly established that naviga- 
tors of that nation had used the magnetized needle, 
so arranged as to constitute a crude compass, from a 
period possibly antedating the Christian Era. To 
Western nations, however, the properties of the magne- 

[7] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

tized needle seem to have been quite unknown — at 
least its possibilities of practical aid to the navigator 
were utterly unsuspected — until well into the Middle 
Ages. There is every reason to believe — though 
absolute proof is lacking — that a knowledge of the 
compass came to the Western world from the Far East 
through the medium of the Arabs. The exact channel 
of this communication will perhaps always remain 
unknown. Nor have we any clear knowledge as to the 
exact time when the all-important information was 
transmitted. We only know that manuscripts of the 
twelfth century mentioned the magnetic needle as an 
implement familiar to navigators, and from this time 
forward, we may feel sure, the new possibilities of ex- 
ploration made possible by the compass must have 
suggested themselves to some at least of the more 
imaginative minds of each generation. Indeed there 
were explorers in each generation who pushed out a 
little into the unknown, as the discovery of various 
groups of Islands in the Atlantic shows, although the 
efforts of these pioneers have been eclipsed by the 
spectacular feat of Columbus. 

The exact steps by which the crude compass of the 
Orientals was developed into the more elaborate and 
delicate instrument familiar to Western navigators 
cannot be traced by the modern historian. It is known 
that sundry experiments were made as to the best form 
of needle, and in particular as to the best way of ad- 
justing it on approximately frictionless bearings. But 
a high degree of perfection in this regard had been at- 
tained before the modern period ; and the compass had 

[8] 



THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

been further perfected by attaching the needle to a cir- 
cumferential card on which the "points of the compass," 
thirty-two in number, were permanently marked. At 
all events the compass card had been so divided before 
the close of the fourteenth century, as is proved by a 
chance reference by Chaucer. The utility of the in- 
strument thus perfected — indeed its entire indispensa- 
bleness — was doubtless by this time clearly recognized 
by all navigators; and one risks nothing in suggesting 
that without the compass no such hazardous voyage 
into the unknown as that of Columbus would ever have 
been attempted. 

No doubt the earliest observers of the needle believed 
that it pointed directly to the North. If such were 
indeed the fact the entire science of navigation would be 
vastly simpler than it is. But it required no very acute 
powers of observation to discover that the magnetized 
needle does not in reality point directly towards the 
earth's poles. There are indeed places on the earth 
where it does so point, but in general it is observed 
to deviate by a few degrees from the exact line of the 
meridian. Such deviation is technically known as 
magnetic declination. That this declination is not the 
same for all places was discovered by Columbus in the 
course of his first transatlantic voyage. 

A century or so later, the accumulated records made 
it clear that declination is not a fixed quantity even at 
any given place. An Englishman, Stephen Burrows, is 
credited with making the discovery that the needle 
thus shifts its direction slightly with the lapse of time, 
and the matter was more clearly determined a little 

[9] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

later by Gillebrand, Professor of Geometry at Graham 
College. Dr. Halley, the celebrated astronomer — 
whose achievements have been recalled to succeeding 
generations by the periodical return of the comet 
that bears his name — gave the matter attention, 
and in a paper before the Royal Society in 1692 he 
pointed out that the direction of the needle at London 
had changed in a little over a century (between 1580 
and 1692) from 11 degrees 15 minutes East to 6 degrees 
West, or more than 17 degrees. 

Halley conclusively showed that similar variations 
occurred at all other places where records had been 
kept. He had already demonstrated, a few years 
earlier, that the deviations of the compass noted at sea 
are not due to the varying attractions of neighbor- 
ing bodies of land, but to some influence having to do 
with the problem of terrestrial magnetism in its larger 
aspects. Halley advocated the doctrine, which had 
first been put forward by William Gilbert, that the 
earth itself is a gigantic magnet, and that the action 
of the compass is dependent upon this terrestrial source 
and not, as many navigators believed, on the influence 
of a magnetic star, or on localized deposits of lode- 
stone somewhere in the unknown regions of the North. 

Further observations of the records presently made 
it clear that there are also annual and even daily varia- 
tions of the compass of slight degree. The fact of 
diurnal variations was first discovered by Mr. Graham 
about the year 17 19. More than half a century later 
it was observed by an astronomer named Wales, who 
was accompanying Captain Cook on his famous voyage 

[10] 



THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

round the world (1772-74), that there is yet another 
fluctuation of the compass due to the influence of the 
ship on which it is placed. Considerable quantities 
of iron were of course used in the construction of wooden 
ships, and it was made clear that the ship itself comes 
under the influence of the earth's magnetism and exerts 
in turn an appreciable influence on the compass. 
The fluctuation due to this source is known as devia- 
tion, in contradistinction to the larger fluctuation already 
referred to as declination. 

Not only is the deviation due to the ship's influence a 
matter of importance, but it was discovered by Captain 
Matthew Flinders, in the course of his explorations 
along the coast of New Holland in the year 1801-02, 
that the influence of the ship over its compass varies 
with the direction of the ship's prow. 

Needless to say, the problem of the deviation of the 
compass due to the influence of the ship is enormously 
complicated when the ship instead of being constructed 
chiefly of wood is made of iron or steel. It then be- 
comes absolutely essential that the influence of vessels 
shall be reckoned with and so far as possible com- 
pensated. Such compensation may be effected by the 
adjustment of bodies of iron, as first suggested by Bar- 
low, or by the use of permanent magnets, as first at- 
tempted by England's Astronomer Royal, Professor 
Airy. At the very best, however, it is never possible 
totally to overcome the ship's perverting influence, 
allowance for which must be made if an absolutely 
accurate conclusion is to be drawn from the record 
presented by the compass. 

["] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

Early in the twentieth century an American ship, 
christened the Carnegie, in honor of the philanthropist 
who supplied funds for the enterprise, was constructed 
for the express purpose of making accurate charts of 
the lines of magnetic declination in various parts of the 
globe. This ship differs from every other vessel of 
considerable size ever hitherto constructed in that no 
magnetic material of any kind was used in connection 
with its structure or equipment. For the most part 
iron was substituted by copper or other non-magnetic 
metal. Pins of locust-wood largely took the place of 
nails; and wherever it was not feasible to do away with 
iron altogether it was used in the form of non-magnetic 
manganese steel. The purpose of the Carnegie is to 
provide accurate charts of magnetic declination for the 
use of navigators in general. The value of observa- 
tions made with this non-magnetic ship will be clear 
when it is reflected that with an ordinary ship the 
observer can never be absolutely certain as to what pre- 
cise share of the observed fluctuation of the compass is 
due at any given moment to the ship's influence. In 
other words — using technical terminology — he can 
never apportion with absolute accuracy the influence of 
declination and of deviation. Yet it is highly important 
that he should be able to do so, inasmuch as the declina- 
tion of the compass is an all-important element in reckon- 
ing the exact location of the ship, and would be the same 
for every ship at that place, whereas deviation denotes 
a purely local disturbance which would never be the 
same for any two ships of different construction. 

Not only does the magnetized needle thus tend to 



THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

vary in the direction of its horizontal action, but it also 
tends when suspended at the middle to shift its vertical 
axis. In regions near the equator, indeed, the mag- 
netized needle maintains a horizontal position, but if 
carried into northern or southern latitudes it pro- 
gressively "dips," its polar end sinking lower and lower. 
This dipping of the needle seems to have been first 
observed by Robert Norman, an English nautical in- 
strument maker, about the year 1590. It was brought 
to the attention of Gilbert and carefully tested by him 
in the course of his famous pioneer experiments. Gil- 
bert was led to predicate the existence of magnetic 
poles, the exact location of which would be indicated 
by the dipping needle, which, sinking lower and lower 
as northern latitudes were attained, would ultimately 
at the magnetic pole itself assume a vertical direction. 

That this is a correct expression of the facts was 
determined in the year 183 1 by Sir James Ross, who in 
the course of his Arctic explorations observed the verti- 
cal dip and so located the northern magnetic pole at about 
70 degrees 5 minutes north latitude and 96 degrees 43 
minutes west longitude. It was thus proved that the 
magnetic pole is situated a long distance — more than 
1,200 miles — from the geographical pole. The location 
of the south magnetic pole was most accurately deter- 
mined in 1909 by Lieutenant Shackleton's expedition 
at about 73 degrees south latitude and 156 degrees east 
longitude. The two magnetic poles are thus not directly 
opposite each other on the earth's surface, and the 
magnetic axis of the earth does not coincide with the 
geographical center of the globe itself. 

[13] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

From the standpoint of practical navigation the dip of 
the needle is a matter of much less significance than its 
horizontal fluctuations. Robert Norman himself at- 
tempted to overcome the dip by a balancing apparatus 
applied to the needle; and the modern compass is 
suspended in such a way that the propensity to dip does 
not interfere with the lateral movements which supply 
the navigator with all important information. The 
modern compass in question is the invention of Lord 
Kelvin and was patented by him in 1876. It consists 
of a number of small magnets arranged in parallel and 
held in position by silk threads, each suspended, cob- 
web-like, from the circular rim of aluminum. The 
weight — which in the aggregate is relatively slight — 
being thus largely at the circumference, the instrument 
has a maximum period of oscillation and hence a high 
degree of stability. Its fluctuations due to the ship's 
influence are corrected by a carefully adjusted disposi- 
tion of metal balls and magnets. 

SAILING BY DEAD RECKONING 

While the compass gives indispensable information as 
to direction, and is constantly under the eye of the pilot, 
it of course can give no direct information as to the 
distance traversed by the ship, and hence does not by 
itself suffice to tell the navigator his whereabouts. In 
the early days there was indeed an expectation that 
the observed declination of the compass would reveal 
to the navigator his longitude and that the observation of 
the dip might enable him to determine his latitude. 

[14] 



THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

But more extended observation shows that this was 
asking altogether too much of the compass, and while it 
may be useful as an accessory it is by no means the 
navigator's chief reliance in determining his location. 
This is accomplished, as everyone is aware, in clear 
weather by the observation of the heavenly bodies. 
In cloudy weather, however, such observations ob- 
viously cannot be made, and the seaman must direct 
his ship and estimate his location — an all important 
matter when he is approaching the coast — by what is 
called dead reckoning. One element of this reckoning 
is furnished by the compass, inasmuch as that is his 
sole guide in determining the direction of the ship's 
progress. The other element is supplied by the log 
which furnishes him a clue as to the distance traversed 
hour by hour. 

It is rather startling to reflect that the navigators of 
the middle ages had no means whatever of determining 
the rate of progress of a ship at sea, beyond the crudest 
guesses unaided by instrument of any kind. When 
Columbus made his voyage he had no means of know- 
ing what distance he had actually sailed; nor was any 
method of measuring the ship's speed utilized through- 
out the course of the ensuing century. In the year 
1570, however, one Humfray Cole suggested a the- 
oretical means of measuring the ship's rate of progress 
by means of an object dropped back of the ship and 
allowed to drag through the water; and this suggestion 
led a generation later to the introduction of the log, 
which was first actually tested, so far as can be learned, 
in the year 1607. 

[iS] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

The original log was so called because it consisted 
essentially of an actual log or piece of wood. To the 
center of this a string was attached, and in testing the 
ship's rate of progress this string was allowed to slip 
through the fingers of a sailor who counted the number 
of knots — placed, of course, at regular intervals on 
the string — that passed through his fingers in a given 
time. As the log itself would remain practically station- 
ary in the water where it was dropped, the number of 
knots counted indicated the distance traversed by the 
ship in a given time. In practice the time was usually 
gauged by a half -minute sand glass, and the knots were 
arranged at such a distance on the cord that, in the 
course of the half minute, one knot would pass through 
the fingers for each nautical mile covered by the ship 
in an hour. The actual distance between the knots was 
therefore about fifty feet. The nautical or geographical 
mile represents one degree of the earth's circumference 
at the equator, amounting therefore to 6,008 feet, 
as against the 5,280 feet of the statute mile. It was 
the use of the log-line with its knots, as just explained, 
that led to the dubbing of the nautical mile by the name 
"knot," which is still familiarly employed, though the 
knotted log-line itself has been superseded in recent 
times, except on very old-fashioned sailing ships. 

The log retains its place even in the most modern 
ship, though its form is materially altered, and its im- 
portance is somewhat lessened owing to the fact that 
the experienced skipper can test the speed of his ship 
very accurately by noting the number of revolutions 
per minute of the ship's propellers. It is indeed the 

[16] 



THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

ship's propeller that supplies the model for the mod- 
ern log, in which the primitive piece of wood is re- 
placed by a torpedo-like piece of metal with miniature 
propeller-like blades at its extremity. This apparatus 
is towed at the end of a long line, and its blades, whirling 
more or less rapidly according to the speed of the ship, 
communicate their motion to a recording apparatus, 
adjusted at the ship's stern, to which the line is attached 
and the face of which ordinarily presents a dial on which 
the speed of the ship may be observed as readily as one 
observes the time by the clock. 

Some recent modifications of the log employ an elec- 
trical device to register the progress, but the principle of 
the revolving vanes, which owe their speed to the rate 
at which they are dragged through the water, is the 
fundamental one upon which the action of the log 
usually depends, though attempts have been made 
to substitute pressure-gauge systems. 

While the modern log records the speed of the ship 
with a fair degree of accuracy, its register shows at 
best only an approximation of the facts. As already 
mentioned, the rate of revolution of the ship's propeller 
blades furnishes what most navigators regard as a rather 
more dependable test of speed. An apparatus for re- 
cording this is found on the bridge of the modern ship. 
But due allowance must of course be made for the 
effect of winds, waves, and ocean currents. These con- 
stantly variable factors obviously make the estimate as 
to the precise distance traversed by a ship in a given 
time a matter not altogether devoid of guess work; and 
no navigator who has been obliged to sail for several 

VOL. VII. 2 [ I 7 ] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

days by dead reckoning approaches a coast with quite 
the same degree of satisfaction that he may entertain if 
his log has been checked by observation of the sun or 
stars. In case, however, a navigator is able to check 
his reckoning by astronomical observations, aided by 
the chronometer, he determines his location with great 
accuracy. 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SEXTANT 

The instrument with which such astronomical 
observations are made is known as the sextant. Its 
purpose is to measure with great accuracy the angle 
between two objects, which in practice are the horizon 
line on one hand and some celestial body, usually the 
sun, on the other. The determination of the latitude 
of the ship, for example, is a matter of comparative 
ease, if the sun chances to be unobscured just at mid- 
day. The navigator has merely to measure the exact 
elevation of the sun as it crosses the meridian, — that 
is to say when it is at its highest point, — and, having 
made certain corrections for so-called dip and refrac- 
tion, to which we shall refer more at length in a moment, 
a very simple calculation reveals the latitude — that is 
to say, the distance from the terrestrial equator. 

That the latitude of a ship could thus be determined, 
with greater or less accuracy, has been familiar knowl- 
edge to seamen from a very early period. It was by 
the use of this principle that the earth was measured by 
Eratosthenes and Posidonius in classical times, and 
the sailors of antiquity probably carried with them a 

[18] 



THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

crude apparatus for measuring the height of sun and 
stars, as the mediaeval navigators are known to have 
done. 

The simplest and crudest form of measurer of which 
the record has been preserved is known as the cross- 
staff. This consisted essentially of a stick about a yard 
in length, called the staff, on which a cross-piece was 
arranged at right angles, so adjusted at the center as to 
slide back and forth on the staff. An eye-piece at 
one end of the staff was utilized to sight along pro- 
jections at either end of the cross-piece. If the appara- 
tus is held so that one of the lines of sight is directed 
to the horizon, and then the cross-piece slid along the 
staff until the other line of sight is directed toward the 
sun or a given star, the angle between the two lines of 
sight will obviously represent the angle of altitude of 
the celestial body in question. But the difficulty of 
using an apparatus which requires two successive ob- 
servations to be made without shift of position is ob- 
vious, and it is clear that the information derived from 
the cross-staff must have been at best very vague — 
by no means such as would satisfy the modern navigator. 

Even the navigators of the fifteenth century were 
aware of the deficiencies of the cross-staff and sought 
to improve upon it. The physicians of Henry the 
Navigator of Portugal, Roderick and Joseph by name, 
and another of his advisers, Martin de Bohemia, are 
credited with inventing, or at least introducing, a 
much improved apparatus known as the astrolabe. 
This consists of a circle of metal, arranged to be sus- 
pended from a ring at the side, so that one of its 

[19] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

diameters would maintain the horizontal position 
through the effect of gravity. A superior quadrant of 
the circle was marked with degrees and minutes. A 
straight piece of metal, with sights so that it could be 
accurately pointed, was adjusted to revolve on a pivot 
at the center of the circle. This sighting piece being 
aimed at the sun, for example, the elevation of that 
body could be read directly on the measuring arc of 
the circle. Here, then, was no new principle involved, 
but the instrument had obvious points of advantage 
over the cross-staff, in particular because only a single 
sight need be taken, the horizon line being determined, 
as already explained, through the action of gravitation. 
The astrolabe did not gain immediate favor with 
practical navigators, and it was at best a rather clumsy 
instrument, subject to peculiar difficulties when used 
on a rolling ship. Many attempts were made to im- 
prove upon it, but for a long time none of these was al- 
together successful. The final suggestion as to means of 
overcoming the difficulties encountered in measuring 
the altitude of astronomical bodies was made by Sir 
Isaac Newton. But nothing practical came of his 
discovery, as it was not published until a long time after 
his death. Meantime independent discovery of the 
same principle was made by Thomas Godfrey of 
Philadelphia, in 1730, and by the English astronomer 
Hadley, who published his discovery before the Royal 
Society in 1731. The instrument which Hadley de- 
vised was called a quadrant. The principle on which it 
worked involved nothing more complex than the use of 
two mirrors, one of them (known as the horizon glass 

[20] 



THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

and having only half its surface mirrored) fixed in the 
line of vision of a small telescope; the other (called 
the index mirror) movable with the arm of an indicator, 
which is so adjusted as to revolve about the axis of the 
quadrant. In operation these two mirrors enable the 
images of two objects, the distance between which is 
to be measured, to be superimposed. The telescope 
may be pointed at the horizon, for example, directly 
under the position of the sun, and the arm of the in- 
strument, altering the position of the so-called index 
mirror, may be rotated until the limb of the sun seems 
just to touch the horizon — the latter being viewed 
through the unsilvered half of the horizon glass. The 
scale at the circumference of the instrument is marked 
in half -degrees, which, however, are registered as 
whole degrees, and which, so interpreted, give the 
direct measurement of the angular distance between 
the horizon and the sun; in other words the measure- 
ment of the sun's altitude or so-called declination. 

The instrument just described, perfected as to details 
but not modified as to principles, constitutes the modern 
sextant, which is used by every navigator, and which 
constitutes, along with the compass and chronometer, 
the practical instrumental equipment that enables the 
seaman to determine — by using the tables of the 
Nautical Almanac — his exact position on the earth's 
surface from observation of the sun or certain of the 
fixed stars. The modern instrument is called a sex- 
tant because it has, for convenience' sake, been re- 
stricted in size to about one-sixth of a circle instead 
of the original one-quarter, the small size being found 

[21] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

to answer every practical purpose, since it measures 
all angles up to 120 degrees. 

In practice the sextant is an instrument only six or 
eight inches in diameter. It is held in the right hand 
and the movable radial arm is adjusted with the left 
hand with the aid of a micrometer screw, and the read- 
ing of the scale is made accurate by the vernier arrange- 
ment. The ordinary observation — which every traveler 
has seen a navigator make from the ship's bridge just 
at midday — is carried out by holding the sextant in a 
vertical position directly in line of the sun, and sighting 
the visible horizon line, meantime adjusting the re- 
cording apparatus so as to keep the sun's limb seeming- 
ly in touch with the horizon. As the sun is constantly 
shifting its position the vernier must be constantly ad- 
justed until the observation shows that the sun is at the 
very highest point. The instrument being clamped 
and the scale read, the latitude may be known when 
proper correction has been made for the so-called dip, 
for refraction, and where great accuracy is required 
for parallax. 

Dip, it may be explained, is due to the fact that the 
observation is made not from the surface of the water 
but from an elevation, which is greater or less accord- 
ing to the height of the bridge, and which therefore 
varies with each individual ship. The error of refrac- 
tion is due to the refraction of the sun's light in passing 
through the earth's atmosphere, and will vary with the 
temperature and the degree of atmospheric humidity, 
both of which conditions must be taken into account. 
The amount of refractive error is very great if an object 

[22] 




"taking the sun with the sextant. 

The instrument is held in the right hand, and levelled at the horizon; the 
left hand manipulating the micrometer screw which adjusts the radial arm 
carrying the index mirror (at top of figure) . The result is read on the Ver- 
nier scale (arc at bottom of figure) with the aid of the magnifying glass. 



THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

lies near the horizon. Everyone is familiar with the 
oval appearance of the rising or setting sun, which is 
due to refraction. With the sun at the meridian, the 
refractive error is comparatively slight; and when a 
star is observed at the zenith the refractive error dis- 
appears altogether. 

By parallax, as here employed, is meant the error 
due to the difference in the apparent position of the sun 
as viewed by an observer at any point of the earth's 
surface from what the apparent position would be if 
viewed from the line of the center of the earth, from 
which theoretical point the observations are supposed 
to be made. In the case of bodies so distant as the sun, 
this angle is an exceedingly minute one, and in the case 
of the fixed stars it disappears altogether. The sun's 
parallax is very material indeed from the standpoint of 
delicate astronomical observations, but it may be ig- 
nored altogether by the practical navigator in all ordi- 
nary observations. There is one other correction that 
he must make, however, in case of sun observations; 
he must add, namely, the amount of semi-diameter 
of the sun to his observed measurement, as all calcula- 
tions recorded in the Nautical Almanac refer to the 
center of the sun's disk. 

PERFECTING THE CHRONOMETER 

The observation of the sun's height, with the various 
corrections just suggested, suffices by itself to define 
the latitude of the observer. Something more is re- 
quired, however, before he can know his longitude. 

[23] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

How to determine this, was a problem that long taxed 
the ingenuity of the astronomer. The solution came 
finally through the invention of the chronometer, 
which is in effect an exceedingly accurate watch. 

Time measurers of various types have, of course, been 
employed from the earliest times. The ancient Oriental 
and Classical nations employed the so-called clepsydra, 
which consisted essentially of receptacles from or into 
which water dripped through a small aperture, the 
lapse of time being measured by the quantity of water. 
At an undetermined later date sand was substituted 
for the water, and the hour glass with which, in some 
of its forms, nearly everyone is familiar, came into use. 
For a long time this remained a most accurate of time 
measurers, though efforts were early made to find 
substitutes of greater convenience. Then clocks 
operated by weights and pulleys were introduced; and, 
finally, after the time of the Dutchman Huygens, 
the pendulum clock furnished a timepiece of great 
reliability. But the mechanism operated by weight or 
pendulum is obviously ill-adapted to use on shipboard. 
Portable watches, in which coiled springs took the place 
of the pendulum, had indeed been introduced, but the 
mechanical ingenuity of the watchmaker could not 
suffice to produce very dependable time-keepers. The 
very idea of a watch that would keep time accurately 
enough to be depended upon for astronomical observa- 
tions intended to determine longitude was considered 
chimerical. 

Nevertheless the desirability of producing a portable 
time-keeper of great accuracy was obvious, and the 

[24] 



THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

efforts of a large number of experimenters were directed 
towards this end in the course of the eighteenth century. 
These efforts were stimulated by the hope of earning 
a prize of twenty thousand pounds offered by the British 
Government for a watch sufficiently accurate to deter- 
mine the location of a ship with maximum error of 
half a degree, or thirty nautical miles, corresponding 
to two minutes of time, in the course of a transatlantic 
voyage. It affords a striking illustration of the relative 
backwardness of nautical science, and of the difficul- 
ties to be overcome, to reflect that no means then avail- 
able enabled the navigator at the termination of a 
transatlantic voyage to be sure of his location within 
the distance of thirty nautical miles by any means 
of astronomical or other observation known to the 
science of the time. 

The problem was finally solved by an ingenious 
British carpenter named John Harrison, who devoted 
his life to the undertaking, and who came finally to be 
the most successful of watchmakers. Harrison first 
achieved distinction by inventing the compensating 
pendulum — a pendulum made of two metals having a 
different rate of expansion under the influence of heat, 
so adjusted that change in one was compensated by a 
different rate of change in the other. Up to the time 
of this discovery, even the best of pendulum clocks had 
failed of an ideal degree of accuracy owing to the 
liability to change of length of the pendulum — and so, 
of course, to corresponding change in the rate of its 
oscillation — with every alteration of temperature. An- 
other means of effecting the desired compensation was 

[25] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

subsequently devised by Mr. Graham, through the use 
of a well of mercury in connection with the pendulum, 
so arranged that the expansion of the mercury upward 
in its tube would compensate the lengthening of the 
pendulum itself under effect of heat, and vice versa; 
but the Harrison pendulum, variously modified in 
design, remains in use as a highly satisfactory solution 
of the problem. 

Harrison early conceived the idea that it might be 
possible to apply the same principle to the balance- 
wheel of the watch. This problem presented very great 
practical difficulties, but by persistent effort these were 
finally overcome, and a balance-wheel produced, which, 
owing to the unequal expansion and contraction of 
its two component metals under changing temperature, 
altered its shape and so maintained its rate of oscilla- 
tion almost — though never quite — regardless of chang- 
ing conditions of temperature. 

In 1 761 Harrison produced a watch which was tested 
on a British ship in a trip to the West Indies in that 
and the succeeding year, and which proved to be a 
time-keeper of hitherto unexampled accuracy. The 
inventor had calculated that the watch, when carried 
into the tropics, would vary its speed by one second 
per day with each average rise of ten degrees of tem- 
perature. Making allowance for this predicted alter- 
ation, it was found that the watch was far within the 
limits of variation allowed by the conditions of the test 
above outlined. It had varied indeed only five seconds 
during the journey across the ocean. On the return 
trip the watch was kept in a place near the stern of the 

[26] 



THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

ship, for the sake of dryness, where, however, it was 
subjected to a great deal of joggling, which led to a con- 
siderably greater irregularity of action; but even so its 
variation on reaching British shores was such as to cause 
a maximum miscalculation of considerably less than 
thirty nautical miles. 

Although Harrison seemed clearly enough to have 
won the prize, there were influences at work that inter- 
fered for a time with full recognition of his accomplish- 
ment. Presently he received half the sum, however, 
and ultimately, after having divulged the secret of his 
compensating balance and proved that he could make 
other watches of corresponding accuracy, he received 
the full award. 

Minor improvements have naturally been made in 
the watch since that time, but the essential problem 
of making a really reliable portable timepiece was 
solved by the compensating balance-wheel of Harri- 
son. The ship's chronometer of to-day is merely a 
large watch, with an escapement of particular con- 
struction, mounted on gimbals so that it will maintain 
a practically horizontal position. 

Modern ships are ordinarily provided with at least 
three of these time-keepers in order that each may 
be compared with the others, and a more accurate de- 
termination of the time made than would be possible 
from observation of a single instrument; inasmuch as 
no absolutely accurate time-keeper has ever been con- 
structed. Two chronometers would obviously be not 
much better than one, since there would be no guide 
as to whether any variation between them had been 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

caused by one running too fast or the other too slowly. 
But with a third chronometer to check the comparison, 
it is equally obvious that a dependable clue will be given 
as to the exact time. 

It is to be understood of course that the variation 
of any of the chronometers will be but slight if they are 
good instruments. Moreover the tendency to vary 
in one direction or the other of each individual instru- 
ment will be known from previous tests. Such tests 
are constantly made at the Royal Observatory in Eng- 
land and elsewhere, and the best chronometers bear 
certificates as to their accuracy and as to their rate of 
variation. It may be added that a chronometer or 
other timepiece is technically said to be a perfect 
instrument, not when it has no variation at all — since 
this has proved an unattainable ideal — but when its 
variation is slight, is always in one direction, and is 
perfectly or almost perfectly uniform. 

FINDING THE TIME WITHOUT A CHRONOMETER 

In the reference made above to the testing of Harri- 
son's watch, it was stated that that instrument varied 
by only a certain number of seconds in the course of the 
westerly voyage across the Atlantic, and that its varia- 
tion was somewhat greater on the return voyage. This 
implies, clearly, that some method was available to 
test the watch in the West Indies, without waiting for 
the return to England. At first thought this may 
cause no surprise, since the local time can of course be 
known anywhere through meridian observations; but 

[28] 



THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

on reflection it may seem less and less obvious as to just 
what test was available through which the exact dif- 
ference in time between Greenwich, at which the watch 
was originally tested, and local time at the station in the 
West Indies could be determined. There are, however, 
several astronomical observations through which this 
could be accomplished, and in point of fact the com- 
parative times and hence the precise longitudes at many 
points on the Western Hemisphere — and indeed of all 
portions of the civilized globe — were accurately known 
before the day of the chronometer. 

One of the simplest and most direct means of testing 
the time of a place, as compared with Greenwich time, 
is furnished by observation of the occultation of one of 
the moons of Jupiter. By occultation is meant, as is 
well known, the eclipse of the body through passing into 
the shadow of its parent planet. This phenomenon, 
causing the sudden blotting out of the satellite as viewed 
from the earth, occurs at definite and calculable periods 
and is obviously quite independent of any terrestrial 
influence. It occurs at a given instant of time and would 
be observed at that instant by any mundane witness to 
whom Jupiter was at that time visible. If then an ob- 
server noted the exact local time at which occultation 
occurred, and compared this observed time with the 
Greenwich time at which such occultation was pre- 
dicted to occur, as recorded in astronomical tables, a 
simple subtraction or addition will tell him the difference 
in time between his station and the meridian at Green- 
wich; and this difference of time can be translated into 
degrees of longitude by merely reckoning fifteen degrees 

[29] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

for each hour of time, and fractions of the hour in that 
proportion. 

It will be noted that this observation has value for the 
purpose in question only in conjunction with certain 
tables in which the movements of Jupiter and its satel- 
lite are calculated in advance. This is equally true of 
the various other observations through which the same 
information may be obtained — as for example, the ob- 
servation of a transit of Mars, or the measurement of 
apparent distance between the moon and a given fixed 
star. Before the tables giving such computations were 
published it was quite impossible to determine the exact 
longitude of any transatlantic place whatsoever. We 
have already pointed out that Columbus had only a 
vague notion as to how far he had sailed when he dis- 
covered land in the West. The same vagueness ob- 
tained with all the explorations of the immediately 
ensuing generations. 

It was not until about the middle of the sixteenth 
century that Mercator and his successors brought the 
art of map-making to perfection; and the celebrated 
astronomical tables of the German Mayer, which 
served as the foundation for calculations of great im- 
portance to the navigator, were not published until 1753. 
The first Nautical Almanac , in which all manner of 
astronomical tables to guide the navigator were included, 
was published at the British Royal Observatory in 
1767. 

At the present time, a navigator would be as likely 
to start on a voyage without compass and sextant 
as without charts and a Nautical Almanac. Indeed 

[30] 



THE CONQUEST OP THE ZONES 

were he to overlook the latter the former would serve 
but a vague and inadequate purpose. Yet, as just 
indicated, this invaluable adjunct to the equipment 
of the navigator was not available until well toward 
the close of the eighteenth century. But of course 
numerous general tables had been in use long before 
this, else — to revert to the matter directly in hand — 
it would not have been possible to make the above- 
recorded test in the case of Harrison's famous watch 
in the voyage of 1761-62. 

ASCERTAINING THE SHIP'S LONGITUDE 

In the days before the chronometer was perfected, 
almost numberless methods of attempting to determine 
the longitude of a ship at sea were suggested. There 
were astronomers who advocated observation of the 
eclipse of Jupiter's satellites; others who championed 
the method of so-called lunars — that is to say, calcula- 
tion based on observation of the distance of the moon 
at a given local time from one or another of certain fixed 
stars arbitrarily selected by the calculator. Inasmuch 
as the seaman could always regulate even a faulty 
watch from day to day by observation of the meridian 
passage of the sun, it was thought that these observa- 
tions of Jupiter's satellite or of the moon would serve to 
determine Greenwich time and therefore the longitude 
at which the observation was made with a fair degree 
of accuracy. But in practice it is not easy to observe 
the eclipse of Jupiter's satellite without a fair telescope ; 
and it was soon found that the tables for calculating 

[31] 



THE CONQUEST OP TIME AND SPACE 

the course of the moon were by no means reliable, hence 
theoretically excellent methods of determining longi- 
tude by observation of that body proved quite unreliable 
in practice. 

It was with the chief aim of bettering our knowledge 
of the moon's course through long series of very accurate 
observations that the Royal Observatory at Greenwich 
was founded. Perhaps it was not unnatural under these 
circumstances that certain of the Astronomers Royal 
should have advocated the method of lunars as the 
mainstay of the navigator. In particular Maskelyne, 
who was in charge of the Observatory in the latter 
part of the eighteenth century, was so convinced of the 
rationality of this method that he was led to discredit 
the achievements of Harrison's watches, and for a 
long time to exert an antagonistic influence, which the 
watchmaker resented bitterly and it would appear not 
without some show of reason. 

Ultimately, however, the accuracy of the watch, 
and its indispensableness in the perfected form of the 
chronometer, having been fully demonstrated, the 
method of lunars became practically obsolete and the 
mariner was able to determine his longitude with the 
aid of sextant, chronometer, and Nautical Almanac , by 
means of direct observation of the altitude of the sun 
by day and of sundry fixed stars by night, a much 
simpler calculation sufficing than was required by the 
older method. 

As the sun is the chief time-measurer, whose rate of 
passage in a seeming circumnavigation of the heavens 
is recorded by the dial of clock, watch, or chronometer, 

[32] 



THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

it would seem as if the simplest possible method of 
determining longitude would be found through observa- 
tion of the sun's meridian passage. The user of the 
sextant on shipboard always makes, if weather permits, 
a meridian observation of the sun, and such observa- 
tion gives him an accurate gauge of the altitude of the 
sun at its highest point and hence of his own latitude. 
By adjusting the arm of the sextant with which this ob- 
servation is made, the observer is able to determine the 
exact point reached by the sun in its upward course with 
all requisite accuracy. 

But, unfortunately for his purpose, the sun does not 
poise for an instant at the apex of its upward flight and 
then begin its descent. On the contrary, its orbit being 
circular, the course of the sun just at its highest point is 
approximately horizontal for an appreciable length of 
time, and while the observer therefore has adequate 
opportunity to measure with accuracy the highest 
point reached, he cannot possibly make sure, within 
the limits of a considerable fraction of a minute, as to 
the precise moment when the center of the sun is on 
the meridian. He can, indeed, determine this point 
with sufficient accuracy for rough calculations, but 
modern navigation demands something more than 
rough calculations, inasmuch as a variation in time of 
one minute represents one-quarter of a degree of longi- 
tude, or fifteen nautical miles at the equator, and such 
uncertainty as this would imply can by no means be 
permitted in the safe navigation of a ship that may be 
passing through the water at the rate of a nautical 
mile in less than three minutes. 

vol. vii— 3 [ 33 ] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

It follows that meridian observation of the sun, owing 
to the necessary inaccuracy of such observation, is not 
the ideal method. In point of fact the sun may be 
observed for this purpose to much better advantage 
when it is at a considerable distance from the meridian, 
since then its altitude above the horizon at a given 
moment is the only point necessary to be determined. 
The calculation by which the altitude of the sun may be 
translated into longitude is indeed more complicated in 
this case; but while spherical trigonometry is involved 
in the calculation, the tables supplied by the Nautical 
Almanac enable the navigator to make the estimate 
without the use of any knowledge beyond that of the 
simplest mathematics. 

MEASURING A DEGREE OF LATITUDE 

While these observations tell the navigator his exact 
location in degrees of latitude and longitude, such 
knowledge does not of course reveal the distance trav- 
ersed unless the precise length of the degree itself is 
known; and this obviously depends upon the size of the 
earth. Now we have seen that the earth was measured 
at a very early date by Greek and Roman astronomers, 
but of course their measurements, remarkable though 
they were considering the conditions under which they 
were made, were but rough approximations of the 
truth. Numerous attempts were made to improve 
upon these early measurements, but it was not until 
well into the seventeenth century that a really accurate 
measurement was made between two points on the 

[34] 



THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

earth's surface, the difference between which, as 
measured in degrees and minutes, was accurately known. 

In June of the year 1633, the Englishman Robert 
Norman made very accurate observations of the alti- 
tude of the sun on the day of the summer solstice (when 
of course it is at its highest point in the heavens); the 
observation being made with a quadrant several feet in 
diameter stationed at a point near the Tower of London. 
On the corresponding day of the following year he 
made similar observations at a point something like 
125 miles south of London, in Surrey. The two observa- 
tions determined the exact difference in latitude be- 
tween the two points in question. 

Norman then undertook a laborious survey, that he 
might accurately measure the precise distance in miles 
and fractions thereof that corresponded to these known 
degrees of latitude. He made actual measurements 
with the chain for the most part, but in a few places 
where the topography offered peculiar difficulties he 
was obliged to depend upon the primitive method of 
pacing. 

The modern surveyor, equipped with instruments 
for the accurate measuring of angles, not differing 
largely in principle from the quadrant of the naviga- 
tor, would consider Norman's method of measurement 
a very clumsy one. He would measure only a single 
original base line of any convenient length, but would 
make that measurement with very great accuracy, 
using, perhaps, a rod packed in ice that it might not 
vary in length by even the fraction of an inch through 
changes in temperature. An accurate base line thus 

[35] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

secured, he would depend thereafter on the familiar 
method of triangulation, in which angles are measured 
very accurately, and from such measurement the length 
of the sides of the successive triangles determined by 
simple calculation. In the end he would thus have 
made the most accurate determination of the distance 
involved, without having actually measured any por- 
tion thereof except the original base line. Notwith- 
standing the crudity of Norman's method, however, his 
estimate of the actual length of a degree of the earth's 
surface was correct, as more recent measurements have 
demonstrated, within twelve yards — a really remark- 
able result when it is recalled that the total length of 
the degree is about sixty nautical miles. 

Inasmuch as the earth is not precisely spherical, but 
is slightly flattened at the poles, successive degrees of 
latitude are not absolutely uniform all along a meridian, 
but decrease slightly as the poles are approached. The 
deviation is so slight, however, that for practical pur- 
poses the degree of latitude may be considered as an 
unvarying unit. But obviously such is not the case 
with a degree of longitude. The most casual glance at 
a globe on which the meridian lines are drawn, shows 
that these lines intersect at the poles, and that the dis- 
tance between them is, in the nature of the case, differ- 
ent at each successive point between poles and equator. 
It is only at the equator itself that a degree of longi- 
tude represents shr of the earth's circumference. 
Everywhere else the parallels of latitude cut the merid- 
ians in what are termed small circles — that is to say, 
circles that do not represent circumference lines in the 

[36] 



THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

plane of the earth's center. Therefore while all points 
on any given meridian of longitude are equally distant 
in terms of degrees and minutes of arc from the merid- 
ian of Greenwich, the actual distances from that merid- 
ian of the different points as measured in miles will 
depend entirely upon their latitude. 

At the equator each degree of longitude corresponds 
to (approximately) sixty miles, but in the middle lati- 
tudes traversed for example by the transatlantic lines, 
a degree of longitude represents only half that distance ; 
and in the far North the meridians of longitude draw 
closer and closer together until they finally converge, 
and at the poles all longitudes are one. 

It follows, then, that the navigator must always 
know both his latitude and his longitude in order to 
estimate the exact distance he has sailed. We have 
seen that a single instrument, the sextant, enables him 
to make the observations from which both these essen- 
tials can be determined. We must now make further 
inquiry as to the all important guide without the aid 
of which his observations, however accurately made, 
would avail him little. This guide, as already pointed 
out, is found in the set of tables known as the Nautical 
Almanac. 

THE NAUTICAL ALMANAC 

Had the earth chanced to be poised in space with its 
axis exactly at right angles to its plane of revolution, 
many computations of the astronomer would be greatly 
simplified. Again, were the planetary course circular 

[37] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

instead of elliptical, and were the earth subject to no 
gravitational influences except that of the sun and 
moon, matters of astronomical computation would be 
quite different from what they are. But as the case 
stands, the axis of the earth is not only tipped at an 
angle of about twenty-three degrees, but is subject to 
sundry variations, due to the wobbling of the great top 
as it whirls. 

Then the other planets, notably the massive Jupi- 
ter, exert a perverting influence which constantly inter- 
feres with the regular progression of the earth in its 
annual tour about the sun. A moment's reflection 
makes it clear that the gravitation pull of Jupiter is 
exerted sometimes in opposition to that of the sun, 
whereas at other times it is applied in aid of the sun, 
and yet again at various angles. In short, on no two 
successive days — for that matter no two successive 
hours or minutes — is the perturbing influence of Jupi- 
ter precisely the same. 

What applies to the earth applies also, of course, to 
the varying action of Jupiter on the moon and to the 
incessantly varied action of the moon itself upon the 
earth. All in all, then, the course of our globe is by no 
means a stable and uniform one; though it should be 
understood that the perturbations are at most very 
slight indeed as compared with the major motions that 
constitute its regular action and lead to the chief phe- 
nomena of day and night and the succession of the 
seasons. 

Relatively slight though the perturbations may be, 
however, they are sufficient to make noteworthy changes 

[38] 






THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

in the apparent position of the sun and moon as viewed 
with modern astronomical instruments; and they can 
by no means be ignored by the navigator who will de- 
termine the position of his ship within safe limits of 
error. And so it has been the work of the practical 
astronomers to record thousands on thousands of ob- 
servations, giving with precise accuracy the location of 
sun, moon, planets, and various stars at given times; 
and these observations have furnished the basis for the 
elaborate calculations of the mathematical astronomers 
upon which the tables are based that in their final 
form make up the Nautical Almanac , to which we 
have already more than once referred. 

These calculations take into account the precise 
nature of the perturbing influences that are exerted on 
the earth and on the moon on any given day, and hence 
lead to the accurate prediction as to the exact relative 
positions of these bodies on that day. Stated other- 
wise, they show the precise position in the heavens 
which will be held at any given time by the sun for 
example, or by the important planets, as viewed from 
the earth. How elaborate these computations are may 
be inferred from the statement that the late Professor 
Simon Newcomb used about fifty thousand separate 
and distinct observations in preparing his tables of the 
sun. Once calculated, however, these tables of Pro- 
fessor Newcomb are so comprehensive as to supply 
data from which the exact position of the sun can be 
found for any day between the years 1200 B.C. and 
2300 a.d., a stretch of some thirty-five centuries. 

Such a statement makes it clear how very crude and 

[39] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

vague the deductions must have been from the ob- 
servations of navigators, however accurately made, 
prior to the time when such tables as those of the Nau- 
tical Almanac had been prepared. Fully to appreciate 
this, it is necessary to understand that the observations 
supplied in such profusion for the use of the mathe- 
matical astronomer are in themselves subject to errors 
that might seriously vitiate the results of the final com- 
putation. They must, therefore, be made with the ut- 
most accuracy, and with instruments specially pre- 
pared for the purpose. The chief of these instruments 
is not the gigantic telescope but the small and rela- 
tively simple apparatus known as a transit instrument. 
This constitutes essentially a small telescope poised on 
very carefully adjusted trunnions, in such a way that it 
revolves in a vertical axis, bringing into view any celes- 
tial body that is exactly on the meridian, and bodies in 
this position only. To make observation of the transit 
— that is to say the passage across the meridian line — 
of any given body more accurate, the transit instru- 
ment has stretched vertically across the center of its 
field of vision a spider web, or a series of parallel spider 
webs; in order, in the latter case, that the mean time 
of several observations may be taken. 

So exceedingly difficult is it to manufacture and 
mount an instrument of requisite nicety of adjustment, 
that the effort has almost baffled the ingenuity of the 
mechanic. Sir George Airy, in making a transit instru- 
ment for use at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, 
required the trunnions on which it was to be mounted 
to be ground truly cylindrical in form within a varia- 

[40] 



THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

tion of one thirty-two-thousandth of an inch as deter- 
mined by a delicate spirit level. Even when all but 
absolute decision has been obtained, however, it is 
quite impossible to maintain it, as the slightest varia- 
tion of temperature — due perhaps to the application of 
the hand to one of the pillars on which the trunnions 
rest — may disturb the precise direction of the spider 
webs and so militate against absolute accuracy of 
observation. The instrument must, therefore, be 
constantly tested and its exact range of errors noted 
and allowed for. 

To devote so much labor to details, merely in the 
effort to determine the precise moment at which a star 
or planet crosses the meridian, would seem to be an 
absurd magnification of trifles. But when we reflect 
that the prime object of such observations is to supply 
practical data which will be of service in enabling navi- 
gators on all the seas of the globe to bring their ships 
safely to port, the matter takes on quite another aspect. 
We have here, obviously, another and a very striking 
illustration of the close relationship that obtains be- 
tween the work of the theoretical devotee of science 
and that of the practical man of affairs. 

SOUNDINGS AND CHARTS 

Though the navigator, thanks to his compass, sex- 
tant, and Nautical Almanac, may determine with a high 
degree of precision his exact location, yet even the best 
observations do not enable him to approach a coast 
without safeguarding his ship by the use of another 

[41] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

piece of mechanism calculated to test the depth of the 
waters in which he finds himself at any given moment. 
In its most primitive form — in which form, by the bye, 
it is still almost universally employed — this apparatus 
is called the lead, — so called with much propriety be- 
cause it consists essentially of a lump of lead or other 
heavy weight attached to a small rope. Knots in the 
rope enable the sailor who manipulates the lead to note 
at a glance the depth to which it sinks. Most ocean 
travelers have seen a sailor heaving the lead repeatedly 
at the side of the ship and noting the depth of the 
water, particularly as the ship approached the Long 
Island shore. 

While this simple form of lead suffices for ordinary 
purposes, when the chief information sought is as to 
whether the water is deeper than the draft of the ship, 
it is at best only a rough and ready means of testing 
the depth in relatively shallow waters. For deeper 
waters and to test with greater accuracy the depths of 
uncharted regions, and in particular to determine the 
character of the sea bottom at any given place, more 
elaborate apparatuses are employed. One of the most 
useful of these is the invention of the late Lord Kelvin. 
In this the lead is replaced by a cannon ball, perforated 
and containing a cylinder which is detached when the 
weight reaches the bottom and is drawn to the surface 
filled with sand or mud, the cannon ball remaining at 
the bottom. In another form of patent lead, a float 
becomes detached so soon as the weight strikes the 
bottom and comes at once to the surface, thus record- 
ing the fact that the bottom has been reached, — a fact 



THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

not always easy to appreciate by the mere feel of the 
line when the water is fairly deep. 

It is obvious that however well informed the navi- 
gator may be as to his precise latitude and longitude, 
he can feel no safety unless he is equally well informed 
as to the depth of the water, the proximity of land, the 
presence or absence of shallows in the region, and the 
like. He must, therefore, as a matter of course, be 
provided with maps and charts on which these things 
are recorded. From the days when navigation first 
became a science, unceasing efforts have been made to 
provide such maps and charts for every known portion 
of the globe. Geographical surveys, with the aid of 
the method of triangulation, have been made along all 
coasts, and elaborate series of soundings taken for a 
long distance from the coast line, and there are now 
few regions into which a ship ordinarily sails, or is 
likely to be carried by accident, for which elaborate 
charts, both of coast lines and of soundings, have not 
been provided. The experienced navigator is able to 
direct his ship with safety along coasts that he visits 
for the first time, or to enter any important harbor on 
the globe without requiring the services of a local pilot, 
— albeit the desire to take no undue risk makes it usual 
to accept such services. 

Time was, however, when maps and charts were not 
to be had, and when in consequence the navigator who 
started on his voyages of exploration was undertaking 
a feat never free from hazard. Until the time of Mer- 
cator there was not even uniformity of method among 
map makers in the charting of regions that had been 

[43] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

explored. The thing seems simple enough now, thanks 
to the maps with which every one has been familiar 
since childhood. But it required no small exercise of 
ingenuity to devise a reasonably satisfactory method of 
representing on a flat surface regions that in reality 
are distributed over the surface of a globe. The method 
devised by Mercator, and which, as everyone knows, is 
now universally adopted, consists in drawing the merid- 
ians as parallel lines, giving therefore a most distorted 
presentation of the globe, in which the distance be- 
tween the meridians at the poles— where in reality 
there is no distance at all — is precisely as great as at 
the equator. To make amends for this distortion, the 
parallels of latitude are not drawn equidistant, as in 
reality they practically are on the globe, but are spaced 
farther and farther apart, as we advance from the 
equator toward either pole. The net result is that an 
island in the arctic region would be represented on the 
map several times as large as an island actually the 
same size but located near the equator. Doubtless 
most of us habitually conceive Alaska and Greenland to 
be vastly more extensive regions than they really are, 
because of our familiarity with maps showing this so- 
called "Mercator's projection." 

Of course maps are also made that hold to the true 
proportions, representing the lines of latitude as equi- 
distant and the meridians of longitude as lines con- 
verging to a point at the poles. But while such a map 
as this has certain advantages — giving, for example, a 
correct notion of the relative sizes of polar and other 
land masses — it is otherwise confusing inasmuch as 

[44] 



THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

places that really lie directly in the north and south 
line cannot be so represented except just at the middle 
of the map, and it is very difficult for the ordinary user 
of the map to gain a clear notion as to the actual points 
of the compass. A satisfactory compromise may be 
effected, however, by using Mercator's projection for 
maps showing wide areas, while the other method is 
employed for local maps. 



THE LURE OF THE UNKNOWN 

While the average man, even with well developed 
traveling instincts, would perhaps prefer always to feel 
that he is sailing in well charted waters and along care- 
fully surveyed coasts, there have been in every genera- 
tion men who delighted in taking risks, and for whom 
half the charm of a voyage must always lie in its dan- 
gers. Such men have been the pioneers in exploring 
the new regions of the globe. That there was no dearth 
of such restless spirits in classical times and even in 
the dark ages, records that have come down to us suf- 
ficiently attest. For the most part, however, their 
names have not been preserved to us. But since the 
ushering in of the period which we to-day think of as 
the beginning of modern times, records have been kept 
of all important voyages of discovery, and at least the 
main outlines of the story of the conquest of the zones 
are familiar to everyone. 

Some of the earliest explorers, most notable among 
whom was the Italian Marco Polo, traveled eastward 
from the Mediterranean and hence journeyed largely 

[45] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

by land. But soon afterward, thanks to the introduc- 
tion of the compass, — which instrument Marco Polo 
has sometimes been mistakenly accredited with bring- 
ing from the East, — the adventurers began to cast 
longing eyes out toward the western horizons. Among 
the first conspicuous and inspiriting results were the 
discoveries of the groups of islands known as the Cape 
Verdes and the Azores. The Canary Islands were vis- 
ited by Spaniards even earlier, and became the subject 
of controversy with the other chief maritime nation 
of the period, the Portuguese. 

When the controversy was adjusted the Spaniards 
were left in possession of the Canaries, but the Por- 
tuguese were given by treaty the exclusive right to 
explore the coast of Africa. Following up sundry tenta- 
tive efforts, the daring Portuguese navigator, Bartholo- 
meo Dias, in the year 1487, passed to the southern- 
most extremity of Africa, which he christened the Cape 
of Good Hope. At last, then, it had been shown that 
Africa did not offer an interminable barrier to the pas- 
sage to the fabled land of treasures in the East. Be- 
fore anyone had ventured to follow out the clues which 
the discovery of the Cape had presented, however, 
Columbus had seemingly solved the problem in an- 
other way by sailing out boldly into the West and sup- 
posedly coming to the East Indies in 1492. 

The western route was barred to the Portuguese but 
the eastern one remained open to them, and before the 
close of the century Vasco da Gama had set out on the 
voyage that ultimately led him to India by way of 
the Cape (1497-1500 a.d.). Twenty years later another 

[46] 



THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

Portuguese navigator, Magellan by name, started on 
what must ever remain the most memorable of voyages, 
save only that of Columbus. Magellan rounded the 
southern point of South America and in 1521 reached 
the Philippines, where he died. His companions con- 
tinued the voyage and accomplished ultimately the cir- 
cumnavigation of the globe; and in so doing afforded 
the first unequivocal practical demonstration, of a 
character calculated to appeal to the generality of un- 
cultured men of the time, that the world is actually 
round. 

Two routes from Europe to the Indies had thus been 
established, but both of them were open to the objection 
that they necessitated long detours to the South. To 
the geographers of the time it seemed more than prob- 
able that a shorter route could be established by sail- 
ing northward and coasting along the shores either of 
Europe to the East or — what seemed more probable — 
of America to the West. Toward the close of the six- 
teenth century the ships of the Dutch navigators had 
penetrated to Nova Zembla, and a few years later 
Henry Hudson visited Spitzbergen, thus inaugurating 
the long series of arctic expeditions. Then Hudson, 
still sailing under the Dutch flag, made heroic efforts 
to find the fabled northwest passage, only to meet his 
doom in the region of the Bay that has since borne his 
name. 

THE QUEST OF THE POLE 

This was in the year 1610. For long generations 
thereafter successors of Hudson were to keep up the 

[47] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

futile quest; and when finally it had been clearly es- 
tablished that no northwest passage to the Pacific could 
be made available, owing to the climate, the zest for 
arctic exploration did not abate, but its goal was 
changed from the hypothetical northwest passage to 
the geographical pole. 

Henry Hudson had in his day established a farthest 
North record of about the eighty-second parallel of 
latitude — leaving only about five hundred miles to be 
traversed. But three centuries were required in which 
to compass this relatively small gap. Expedition after 
expedition penetrated as far as human endurance under 
given conditions could carry it. Some of the explorers 
returned with vivid tales of the rigors of the arctic cli- 
mate; others fell victim to conditions that they could 
not overcome. But the seventeenth, eighteenth, and 
nineteenth centuries passed and left the "Boreal Cen- 
ter " undiscovered. 

Toward the close of the nineteenth century the efforts 
of explorers seemed to be redoubled and one famous 
expedition after another established new records of 
"farthest North." The names of Nansen, the Duke of 
the Abruzzi, and Peary, became familiar to a genera- 
tion whose imagination seemed curiously in sympathy 
with that lure of the North which determined the life 
activities of so many would-be discoverers. So when 
in the early Autumn of 1909 it was suddenly announced 
that two explorers in succession had at last, in the pic- 
turesque phrasing of one of them, "penetrated the 
Boreal Center and plucked the polar prize," the popu- 
lar mind was stirred as it has seldom been by any other 

[48] 



THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

event not having either a directly personal or an inter- 
national political significance. 

The two men whose claims to have discovered the 
pole were thus announced in such spectacular fashion, 
were Dr. Frederick A. Cook, of Brooklyn, and Lieu- 
tenant Commander Robert E. Peary, of the United 
States Navy. Dr. Cook claimed to have reached the 
pole, accompanied only by two Eskimo companions, 
on the twenty-first day of April, 1908. Commander 
Peary reported that he had reached the pole, accom- 
panied by Mr. Matthew H. Henson and four Eskimos, 
on the seventh day of April, 1909. 

The controversy that ensued regarding the authen- 
ticity of these alleged discoveries is not likely to be for- 
gotten by any reader of our generation. Its merits and 
demerits have no particular concern for the purely sci- 
entific inquirer. At best, as Professor Pickering of 
Harvard is reported to have said, "the quest of the 
pole is a good sporting event" rather than an enter- 
prise of great scientific significance. It suffices for our 
present purpose, therefore, to know that Dr. Cook's 
records, as adjudged by the tribunal of the University 
of Copenhagen, to which they were sent, were pro- 
nounced inadequate to demonstrate the validity of his 
claim; whereas Peary and Henson were adjudged by 
the American Geographical Society, after inspection of 
the records, to have accomplished what was claimed 
for them. What has greater interest from the present 
standpoint is the question, which the controversy 
brought actively to the minds of the unscientific public, 
as to how tests are made which determine, in the mind 
vol. vii. — 4 [49] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

of the explorer himself, the fact of his arrival at the 
pole. 

The question has, indeed, been largely answered in 
the earlier pages of this chapter, in our discussion of 
the sextant and the Nautical Almanac; for these con- 
stitute the essential equipment of the arctic explorer no 
less than of the navigators of the seas of more accessi- 
ble latitudes. There is one important matter of de- 
tail, however, that remains to be noted. This relates 
to the manner of using the sextant. On the ocean, as 
we have seen, the navigator levels the instrument at 
the visible horizon; but it is obvious that on land or on 
the irregular ice fields of the arctic seas no visible hori- 
zon can be depended upon as a basis for measuring 
the altitude of sun or stars. So an artificial horizon 
must be supplied. 

The problem is solved by the use of a reflecting sur- 
face, which may consist of an ordinary mirror or a 
dish of mercury. The glass reflector must be adjusted 
in the horizontal plane with the aid of spirit levels; 
mercury, on the other hand, being liquid, presents a 
horizontal surface under the action of gravitation. Un- 
fortunately mercury freezes at about 39 degrees below 
zero; it is therefore often necessary for the arctic ex- 
plorer to melt it with a spirit lamp before he can make 
use of it. These, however, are details aside from which 
the principles of use of glass and mercury horizon are 
identical. The method consists simply in viewing the 
reflected image of the celestial body — which in practice 
in the arctic regions is usually the sun — and so adjust- 
ing the sextant that the direct image coincides with the 

[So] 



THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

reflected one. The angle thus measured will represent 
twice the angular elevation of the body in question 
above the horizon, — this being, as we have seen, the 
information which the user of the sextant desires. 

Of course the explorer makes his "dash for the pole" 
in a season when the sun is perpetually above the hori- 
zon. As he approaches the pole the course of the sun 
becomes apparently more and more nearly circular, 
departing less and less from the same altitude. Hence 
it becomes increasingly difficult to determine by ob- 
servation the exact time when the sun is at its highest 
point. But it becomes less and less important to do so 
as the actual proximity of the pole is approached; and 
as viewed from the pole itself the sun, circling a prac- 
tically uniform course, varies its height in the course of 
twenty-four hours only by the trifling amount which 
represents its climb toward the summer solstice. Such 
being the case, an altitude observation of the sun may 
be made by an observer at the pole at any hour of the 
day with equal facility, and it is only necessary for him 
to know from his chronometer the day of the month in 
order that he may determine from the Nautical Al- 
manac whether the observation really places him at 
ninety degrees of latitude. Nor indeed is it necessary 
that he should know the exact day provided he can 
make a series of observations at intervals of an hour or 
two. For if these successive observations reveal the 
sun at the same altitude, it requires no Almanac and 
absolutely no calculation of any kind to tell him that 
his location is that of the pole. 

The observation might indeed be made with a fair 

[513 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

degree of accuracy without the use of the sextant or of 
any astronomical equivalent more elaborate than, let 
us say, an ordinary lead pencil. It is only necessary to 
push the point of the pencil into a level surface of ice 
or snow and leave it standing there in a vertical posi- 
tion. If, then, the shadow cast by the pencil is noted 
from time to time, it will be observed that its length is 
always the same; that, in other words, the end of the 
shadow as it moves slowly about with the sun describes 
a circle in the course of twenty-four hours. If the at- 
mospheric conditions had remained uniform, so that 
there was no variation in the amount of refraction to 
which the sun's rays were subjected, the circle thus 
described would be almost perfect, and would in itself 
afford a demonstration that would appeal to the least 
scientific of observers. 

An even more simple demonstration might be made 
by having an Eskimo stand in a particular spot and 
marking the length of his shadow as cast on a level 
stretch of ice or snow. Just twelve hours later let the 
Eskimo stand at the point where a mark had been 
made to indicate the end of the shadow, and it would 
be found that his present shadow — cast now, of course, 
in the opposite direction — would reach exactly to the 
point where he had previously stood. The only diffi- 
culty about this simple experiment would result from 
the fact that the sun is never very high as viewed from 
the pole and therefore the shadow would necessarily be 
long. It might therefore be difficult to find a level area 
of sufficient extent on the rough polar sea. In that 
case another measurement similar in principle could be 

[52] 



THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

made by placing a pole upright in the snow or ice and 
marking on the pole the point indicated by the shadow 
of an Eskimo standing at any convenient distance 
away. At any interval thereafter, say six or twelve 
hours, repeat the experiment, letting the man stand at 
the same distance from the pole as before, and his 
shadow will be seen to reach to the same mark. 

Various other simple experiments of similar charac- 
ter may be devised, any of which would appeal to the 
most untutored intelligence as exhibiting phenomena 
of an unusual character. Absolutely simple as these 
experiments are, they are also, within the limits of 
their accuracy, absolutely demonstrative. There are 
only two places on the globe where the shadow of the 
upright pencil would describe a circle, or where the 
man's shadow would be of the same length at intervals 
of twelve hours, or would reach to the same height on 
a pole in successive hours. These two regions are of 
course the poles of the earth. It may reasonably be 
expected that explorers who reach the poles will make 
some such experiments as these for the satisfaction of 
their untrained associates, to whom the records of the 
sextant would be enigmatical. But for that matter 
even an Eskimo could make for himself a measurement 
by using only a bit of a stick held at arm's length — as 
an artist measures the length of an object with his 
pencil — that would enable him to make reasonably 
sure that the sun was at the same elevation through- 
out the day — subject, however, to the qualification that 
the polar ice was sufficiently level to provide a reason- 
ably uniform horizon. 

[53] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

While, therefore, it appears that the one place of all 
others at which it would be exceedingly easy to deter- 
mine one's position from the observation of the sun is 
the region of the pole, it must be borne in mind that 
the low elevation of the sun, and the extreme cold may 
make accurate instrumental observations difficult; and 
it is conceivable that the explorer who had the mis- 
fortune to encounter cloudy weather, and who there- 
fore gained only a brief view of the sun, might be left 
in doubt as to whether he had really reached the goal 
of his ambition. Fortunately, however, the explorers 
who thus far claim to have reached the pole record un- 
interruptedly fair weather, enabling observations to be 
taken hour after hour. Under these circumstances, 
there could be no possibility of mistake as to the gen- 
eral location, although perhaps no observation, under 
the existing conditions, could make sure of locating 
the precise position of the pole within a few miles. 

A curious anomaly incident to the unique geograph- 
ical location of the pole is that to the observer stationed 
there all directions are directly south. Yet of course 
all directions are not one, and the query may arise as 
to how an explorer who has reached the pole may know 
in what direction to start on his return voyage. The 
answer is supplied by the compass, which — perforce 
pointing straight south — indicates the position of the 
magnetic pole and so makes clear in which direction 
lies the coast of Labrador. Moreover if the explorer is 
provided with reliable chronometers, which of course 
record the time at a given meridian — say that of Green- 
wich — these will enable him to determine by the sim- 

[54] 



THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 

plest calculation what particular region lies directly 
beneath the sun at any given time. If, for example, 
his chronometer shows five o'clock Greenwich time, he 
knows that the sun's position, as observed at the mo- 
ment, marks the meridian five hours (i.e., 75 of longi- 
tude) west of Greenwich. 

While the arctic region appears thus to have given 
up its last secret, this is not as yet true of the antarctic. 
The expedition of Lieutenant (now Sir Ernest) Shackle- 
ton, in 1908, approached within about one hundred 
and eleven miles of the South Pole. The intervening 
space — less than two degrees in extent — represents, 
therefore, the only stretch of latitude on the earth's 
surface that has not been trodden by man's foot or 
crossed by his ships. More than one expedition is 
being planned to explore this last remaining strong- 
hold, and in all probability not many years — perhaps 
not many months — will elapse before the little stretch 
of ice that separated Lieutenant Shackleton from the 
South Pole will be crossed, and man's conquest of the 
zones will be complete. 



[55] 



II 

THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS 

THERE is no doubt that the use of sails for 
propelling boats is as old as civilization it- 
self. We know that the Egyptians used 
sails at least 4,000 years before the Christian era. They 
did not depend entirely upon the sails, however, but 
used oars in combination with them. Steering was 
done with single or double oars lashed to the stern and 
controlled by ropes or levers. This method of steering 
remained in use until late in the Middle Ages, the in 
vention of the rudder being one of the few nautical in- 
ventions made during the centuries immediately fol- 
lowing that unproductive period of history known as 
the Dark Age. 

Following the Egyptians, the Phoenicians were the 
greatest maritime nation of ancient times, but unfor- 
tunately they have left no very satisfactory and authen- 
tic records describing their boats. In all probability, 
however, their ships were galleys having one or two 
banks of oars, fitted with sails similar to those of the 
Egyptians. 

If. our knowledge of Phoenician boats is meager, our 
knowledge of Greek boats, particularly the fighting 
craft, is correspondingly full. From the nature of its 
geographical location Greece was necessarily a mari- 

[56] 



THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS 

time nation, and it was here that boat-building reached 
a very high state of development during the period of 
Greek predominance. Large ships fitted with sails 
and having several banks of rowers were used habitu- 
ally in commerce and war, and it was here also that 
the management of sails became so well understood 
that oars were often dispensed with except as auxiliaries. 

It was in Greece that the custom of having several 
banks of oars superimposed reached its highest develop- 
ment, but the fabulous number of such banks credited 
by some authors seems to be entirely without founda- 
tion. It is possible that as many as seven banks were 
used, although the evidence in favor of more than five 
is very slight. 

The writings of Callixenos describe a ship said to 
have been used by Ptolemy Philopater, which was a 
forty-banker. This ship is described as 450 feet long, 
57 feet broad, carrying a crew of about 7,000 men, of 
whom 4,000 were rowers. This description need not be 
taken seriously, as there is no proof that boats of such 
proportions were ever attempted in ancient times. But 
it is certain that the Greeks did build large vessels, 
some of them at least one hundred and fifty feet long 
— perhaps even larger than this. The tendency of 
shipbuilders during the later Greek period was to build 
large, unwieldy boats, which used sails under favor- 
able circumstances, but depended entirely upon oars 
for manceuvering in battle. 

The Romans used similar vessels of large size until 
the time of the battle of Actium, where the clumsy, 
many-banked ships of Antony and Cleopatra were de- 

[57] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

strayed by the lighter single- or double-banked vessels 
of Augustus. Augustus had adopted the low, swift, 
handy vessels of a piratical people, the Liburni, who 
had learned in their sea fights against all kinds of ves- 
sels that the lighter type of boat could be used most 
effectively. Structurally the hulls of these boats were 
not unlike modern wooden vessels. 

While the various types of vessels were being de- 
veloped in the Mediterranean region, a race of mariners 
far to the north were perfecting boats in which they 
were destined to overrun the Western seas from the 
tropics to the arctic circle. These people, the Norse- 
men, left few written descriptions that give a good idea 
of the construction of their boats, which were suffi- 
ciently seaworthy to enable the Danes to cross the At- 
lantic and colonize America. But thanks to one of 
their peculiar burial customs some of their smaller 
boats have been preserved and brought to light in re- 
cent years. It was their custom when a great chief 
died, to bury him in a ship, heaping earth over it to 
form a great mound. In most instances the wood of 
such boats, buried for a thousand years, has entirely 
disappeared ; but in some mounds the boats have been 
preserved almost intact. 

From the specimens so preserved it is known that the 
Norsemen knew how to shape the hulls of their boats 
almost as well as the modern boat-builder. This fact 
is interesting because the immediate successors of the 
Norsemen, either through ignorance or choice, reverted 
to most primitive types in building their boats. Thus 
it required centuries for them to develop a knowledge 

[58] 



THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS 

of hull-construction that was familiar in ancient times 
to the northern rovers. Scandinavia itself never en- 
tirely forgot the art, and there are boats built in Nor- 
way to-day closely similar in all essentials to some of 
the boats constructed by the Norsemen. 

MEDLEVAL SHIPS 

The contrast in shape and construction between the 
trim ships of the Norsemen and the short, top-heavy 
vessels which were the approved European type during 
the early Middle Ages, is most striking. The Mediaeval 
shipbuilders in striving to improve their craft, making 
them as seaworthy and as spacious as possible, first 
added decks, and then built towering superstructures 
at bow and stern. The result was a vessel which would 
have been so top-heavy that it would be likely to cap- 
size had it not been so broad that "turning turtle" was 
out of the question. 

It was in such ships that Columbus made his voyage 
of discovery in 1492, although the superstructures fore 
and aft on his boat were less exaggerated than in some 
later vessels. Nevertheless they were veritable "tubs"; 
and we know from the experience of the crew that 
sailed the replica of the Santa Maria across the ocean 
in 1893, tnat they were anything but comfortable craft 
for ocean traveling. 

This replica of the Santa Maria was reproduced 
with great fidelity by the Spanish shipbuilders, and, 
manned by a Spanish crew, crossed the ocean on a 
course exactly following that taken by Columbus on 

[59] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

his first voyage. Sir George Holmes' terse description 
of this voyage is sufficiently illuminating without elab- 
oration. "The time occupied was thirty-six days," he 
says; "and the maximum speed attained was about 
6 \ knots. The vessel pitched horribly !" 

Two full centuries before the discovery of America 
the rudder had been invented. There is no record to 
show who was responsible for this innovation, although 
its superiority over the older steering appliances must 
have been appreciated fully. But after the beginning 
of the fourteenth century the rudder seems to have 
come into general use, entirely supplanting the older 
side-rudder, or clavus. 



MODERN SAILING SHIPS 

For a full century after the voyage of Columbus little 
progress was made in ship construction; short, stocky 
boats, with many decks high above the water-line at 
bow and stern continuing to be the most popular type. 
In the opening years of the seventeenth century, how- 
ever, the English naval architect, Phineas Pett, departed 
from many of the accepted standards of his time, 
and produced ships not unlike modern full-rigged sail- 
ing vessels, except that the stern was still considerably 
elevated, and the bow of peculiar construction. One 
of Pett's ships, The Sovereign of the Seas, was a vessel 
167 feet long, with 48 foot beam, and of 1,683 tons 
burthen. The introduction of this type of vessel was a 
distinct step forward toward modern shipbuilding. 

The tendency of shipbuilders during the eighteenth 

[60] 




THE OLD AND THE NEW — A CONTRAST 



i The replica of Henry Hudson's famous Half Moon, a typical fighting ship of the 16th 
^entury, and a modern submarine. The photograph was taken in New York Harbor during 
he Hudson-Fulton celebration, September, 1909. 



THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS 

century was to increase the length of vessels in propor- 
tion to the breadth of beam and diminish the depth of 
the hull and superstructures, above the water line, with 
improved sailing qualities. England's extensive trade 
with India and the far East was conducive to this de- 
velopment, as the "East Indiamen' , were necessarily 
a combination of merchant vessel and battleship. 

In the first half of the nineteenth century America 
rose to great commercial importance thanks to her 
fleets of fine sailing vessels. Speed rather than strength 
in their ships was the aim of American ship-builders, 
to gain which they built boats proportionately longer 
and narrower than ever constructed before for ocean 
traffic. The culminating type of wooden sailing ship 
was represented by the " Baltimore clippers," in which 
the length was five, and even six, times the beam, with 
light rigging and improved mechanical devices for 
handling it, whereby the amount of manual labor was 
greatly lessened. One of these ships, the Great Repub- 
lic, built in 1853, was over three hundred feet long, and 
3,400 tons register. She was a four-masted vessel, 
fitted with double topsails, with a spread of canvas 
about 4,500 square yards. 

The modern descendant of the wooden clipper ship 
is the schooner with from four to six masts. Some of 
these vessels exceed the older boats in size and carry- 
ing capacity, if not in speed. Perhaps the largest 
schooner ever constructed is the Wyoming, which was 
completed at Bath, Maine, early in the year 19 10. This 
vessel is 329 feet long and 50 feet broad. It has a 
carrying capacity of 6,000 tons. The construction of 

[61] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

such a vessel at so recent a period suggests that the 
day of the sailing ship is by no means over notwith- 
standing that a full century has elapsed since the com- 
ing of the steamboat. Here, as so often elsewhere in 
the history of progress, it has happened that the full 
development of a type has not been reached until the 
ultimate doom of that type, except for special purposes, 
had been irrevocably sealed. Ever since the full devel- 
opment of the steamboat in the early decades of the 
nineteenth century, the sailing ship has seemed almost 
an anachronism; and yet, in point of fact, the steam- 
ship did not at once outrival its more primitive fore- 
runner. Even in the matter of speed, the sailing ship 
more than held its own for a generation or so after the 
steamship had been placed in commission. In 1851 
the American clipper Flying Cloud made 427 knots in 
twenty-four hours ; and The Sovereign of the Seas bet- 
tered this by averaging over eighteen miles an hour for 
twenty-four consecutive hours. The Atlantic record for 
sailing vessels is usually said to have been made in 
1862 by the clipper ship Dreadnought in a passage be- 
tween Queenstown and New York, the time of which 
is stated as nine days and seventeen hours. It should 
be remarked, however, that the authenticity of this ex- 
traordinary performance has been challenged. 

Be that as it may, it is certain that the speediest sail- 
ing ships, granted favorable conditions of wind and 
wave, more than surpassed the best efforts of the steam- 
ship until about the closing decades of the nineteenth 
century. But of course long before this the steamship 
had proved its supremacy under all ordinary condi- 

[62] 



THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS 

tions. Even though sailing ships continued to be con- 
structed in large numbers, their picturesque rigging 
became less and less a feature in all navigable waters, 
and the belching funnel of the steamship had become a 
characteristic substitute as typifying the sea-going 
vessel. 

The story of the development of this new queen of 
the waters must now demand our attention. It begins 
with the futile efforts of several more or less visionary 
enthusiasts who were contemporaries of James Watt, 
and who thought they saw great possibilities in the 
steam engine as a motive power to take the place of 
oars and sails for the propulsion of ships. 



EARLY ATTEMPTS TO INVENT A STEAMBOAT 

Among the first of these was an American named 
John Fitch. Judged by the practical results of his 
efforts, he was not a highly successful inventor; as a 
prophet, however, and as an experimenter whose efforts 
fell just short of attainment, he deserves a conspicuous 
place in the history of an epoch-making discovery. Yet 
his. prophecy was based on his failures. From 1780, 
for twenty years he strove to perfect a steamboat. His 
efforts did not carry him far beyond the experimental 
stage. But his courage and enthusiasm never waned. 
"Whether I bring the steamboat to perfection or not," 
he declared, "it will some time in the future be the 
mode of crossing the Atlantic for packets and armed 
vessels." 

[63] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

At that very time Benjamin Franklin said this would 
never be. But twenty years later Fulton's Clermont 
paddled up the Hudson River from New York to Al- 
bany and opened the era that saw Fitch's prophecy 
fulfilled. This was in 1807 — a vear tnat must stand as 
the most momentous in maritime history. In that year 
the little Clermont steamed slowly from New York to 
Albany, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles in 
thirty-two hours, unaided by sails or oars, and pro- 
pelled entirely by steam-power. A sail-boat could 
cover the distance in the same number of hours; a 
modern torpedo boat in one-sixth the time. Yet no 
performance of any boat, before or since, had such far- 
reaching effects upon the progress of the world. 

When Fulton turned his attention from his favorite 
theme — the invention of a submarine boat — and took 
up the question of perfecting a boat propelled by steam, 
he did not find himself the first or the only inventor in 
the field. For a hundred years, in round numbers, 
men had been wrestling with the question of applying 
steam pressure to boat propulsion. All manner of more 
or less ingenious devices had been conceived, most of 
them having a germ of success in the principles in- 
volved, but all of them being failures in actual practice. 

Among the most promising of these first steamboats 
were those in which the propeller, or the paddle-wheel, 
was tried; but neither of these methods was looked 
upon favorably at first. Less promising was one in 
which the motive power was a jet of water pumped 
through a submerged tube — a principle that still peri- 
odically fascinates certain modern inventors. 

[6 4 ] 




MARINE ENGINES AND AN EARLY TYPE OF STEAMBOAT. 



The small figure in the centre represents a very remarkable steamboat constructed in 
*j America by John Fitch. The precise date of its construction is not clearly established, but 
the inventor had made efforts at steam navigation as early as 1776. The upper figure shows 
a marine engine made in Scotland in 1788 for Patrick Miller by William Symington. It 
was Used to equip a double-hulled pleasure boat which it is said to have propelled at the rate 
of five miles an hour. The motive power is supplied by two open-top Newcomen cylinders. 
The lower figure represents a modern side wheel steamer with oscillating engines. 



THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS 

But the boats that seemed to have come nearer at- 
taining practical success for the moment were those 
in which several sets of oars worked by steam were 
placed vertically on each side of the hull, the machin- 
ery so arranged that the oars were dipped into the 
water and drawn sternward by one motion of the ma- 
chinery, raised and carried toward the bow by the op- 
posite motion. In some of these boats it was planned 
to have four sets of oars, two sets on each side, which 
were to work alternately, so that while one set was 
traveling forward through the air, its mate would be 
paddling through the water, thus insuring a continuous 
forward impulse. But the machinery for these boats 
proved to be too cumbersome and complicated for 
practical results, and this idea was finally abandoned. 
The jet of water did not prove any more successful, 
and but two other methods were available — the pro- 
peller and the paddle-wheel. 

Both of these methods of utilizing the power of mov- 
ing water had been familiar in the form of the Archi- 
median screw and the commonplace overshot or under- 
shot mill-wheel. In these examples, of course, the 
force of the water was used to move machinery, revers- 
ing the action of the paddle-wheel of the boat. And 
yet the principles were identical. Obviously if the con- 
ditions were reversed, and the undershot mill-wheel, for 
example, forced against the water with corresponding 
power, the propulsive effect might be great enough — 
since action and reaction are equal — to move a boat of 
considerable size. But curiously enough, at the time 
when Fulton began his experiments there was a wave 
vol. vii.— 5. [ 65 ] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

of general belief that when this principle was applied 
to boats it would fail. The reason for this lay in the 
fact that several such boats had been built from time 
to time, and all had failed. The fault, of course, lay in 
some other place than in their paddle wheels; but for 
the time being the wheel, and not the machinery, was 
shouldered with the blame. 

Just a hundred years before Fulton finally produced 
his practical paddle-wheel steamboat, a prototype was 
built by the Spaniard, Blasco de Gary. In 1707, this 
inventor constructed a model paddle-wheel steamboat, 
and tried it upon the river Fulda. But this model boat 
failed to work, and the experiment was soon forgotten. 

Twenty-five years later Jonathan Hulls of England 
patented a marine engine which he proposed to use in 
a boat which was to be propelled by a stern wheel. 
His idea was to use his boats as tug- or tow-boats, and 
to equip the larger vessels themselves with steam. But 
his engines were defective and his boats did not achieve 
commercial success. 

During the time of the American Revolution, a 
French inventor, the Marquis de Jouffroy, made 
several interesting experiments with steam-propelled 
boats, using the principle of the paddle which was 
dipped and raised alternately as referred to a few pages 
back. His boats made several public trials, one of 
them ascending the Seine against the current; but 
nevertheless, the French government refused to grant 
the inventor a patent. Presumably, therefore, the boat 
was not considered a practical success in official circles ; 
and this view is tacitly conceded by the fact that no 

[66] 



THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS 

more boats of its type were constructed. Had they 
been really practical steamboats it is a fair presump- 
tion that others would have been constructed and put 
into operation, regardless of patents. Nevertheless, in 
France to-day, the Marquis de Jouffroy is often re- 
ferred to as the father of steam navigation. 

The idea of propelling a boat by means of a jet of 
water pumped out at the stern by steam pumps was 
given a practical test in 1784, by James Rumsey. His 
boat made a trial trip on the Potomac River in Septem- 
ber of that year, General Washington and other army 
officers being present on this occasion. The boat was 
able to make fairly good progress through the water, 
and seemed so promising that a company was formed 
by capitalists known as the Rumsey Society, for pro- 
moting the idea and building more boats. Rumsey was 
sent to England where he undertook the construction 
of another boat, meanwhile taking out patents in Great 
Britain, France, and Holland. Before his boat was 
completed, however, he died suddenly, and the Rumsey 
Society passed out of existence shortly afterwards. 

An even closer approach to practical success was 
made in Scotland by James Symington, who in 1788, 
in association with two other Scotchmen, Miller and 
Taylor, constructed a boat consisting of two hulls, with 
a paddle-wheel between them worked by a steam- 
engine. This boat worked so well that in 1801, Lord 
Dundas engaged Symington to build a smaller boat to 
be used for towing on the Caledonian Canal. This 
boat, called the Charlotte Dundas, completed in 1802, 
is said to have been capable of towing a vessel of one 

t6 7 ] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

hundred and forty tons " nearly four miles an hour." 
But in doing this the resulting "wash" so threatened 
the feanks of the canal that the vessel was laid up and 
finally rotted and fell to pieces. 

By many impartial judges this boat is considered 
the first practical steamboat, and its failure to estab- 
lish its claim due to the force of circumstances rather 
than to any inherent defects. Symington was too poor 
to pursue his work independently, and was deterred by 
the attitude of James Watt, who "predicted the failure of 
of his engine, and threatened him with legal penalties 
if it succeeded." And when at last he received an 
order for eight smaller vessels from the Duke of Bridge- 
water, his patron died before the details of the agree- 
ment had been completed. So that while he failed in 
accomplishing what was done by Fulton a few years 
later, it is certain that, as Woodcraft says, "He com- 
bined for the first time those improvements which con- 
stitute the present system of steam navigation." 

Some of Symington's engines have been preserved, 
and one of them is now in the Patent Office Museum in 
London. Since the beginning of practical steam navi- 
gation this engine has been tested several times, the 
result showing that Woodcraft's estimate is not over- 
drawn. 

While Symington was thus perfecting a paddle- 
boat, an American, Col. John Stevens of Hoboken, 
New Jersey, was on the verge of accomplishing the 
same end with a screw-propeller boat — a form of 
steamship that did not come into use until some forty 
years later. 

[68] 




O 

« bo S' 



THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS 

Stevens also invented what he called a " rotary 
engine" which was really an engine constructed on the 
same principle as the modern turbine engine. It was a 
small affair which he placed in a skiff, and used for 
turning the screw-propeller of a boat which was able 
to travel at a rate of three or four miles an hour on the 
North River, during the fall of 1802. But Stevens 
found so much difficulty in packing the blades of this 
engine without causing too much friction that he finally 
abandoned it for the more common type of reciprocat- 
ing engine. But if this little steamboat had its defects, 
it nevertheless contained the germs of two great features 
of steam navigation — the screw propeller and the tur- 
bine engine, the advantage of the first of which was 
not recognized for nearly half a century, and the other 
not until almost a full century later. 

In 1804 Stevens produced another propeller steam- 
boat, this one using the ordinary type of reciprocating 
engine, and being notable for having twin screws of a 
pattern practically identical with the screws now in 
use. This boat was able to steam at a rate of four 
miles an hour on many occasions, and at times almost 
double this rate, according to some observers. The 
engines of this boat are still in existence, and on several 
occasions since 1804 have been placed in hulls corre- 
sponding as nearly as possible to the original, and have 
demonstrated that they could force the boat through 
the water at six or eight miles an hour. These engines 
in a modern hull were exhibited at the Columbian Ex- 
position at Chicago, in 1893. They supply irrefutable 
evidence that the practical steamboat had been in- 

[69] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

vented at least three years before Fulton's historic voy- 
age in 1807. Yet no one questions that it was Fulton's, 
not Stevens', invention that inaugurated steam navi- 
gation. 

Just why this was so is a little difficult to compre- 
hend at this time, unless it was that Stevens' boat was 
such a small affair that it did not attract the attention 
it deserved, as did Fulton's larger boat. And yet we 
should not be guided too much by retrospective judg- 
ment. The significant fact remains that Stevens him- 
self did not have entire confidence in his boat, or in 
the principle of his screw propeller, as is shown by the 
fact that three years later, while Fulton was building 
the Clermont, Stevens was also constructing a steam- 
boat, not along the lines of his previous inventions, but 
as a paddle-wheel boat. This leaves little room for 
doubt that Stevens had not full confidence in the pro- 
peller; and when an inventor himself mistrusts his 
own device, there is little likelihood that anyone else 
will supply the necessary confidence. This may ac- 
count for the fact that Stevens found difficulty in se- 
curing financial backing for his enterprise; and when 
such backing was found it was for the construction of 
the paddle-wheel boat, which was finished a few months 
after Fulton's boat had solved the problem of steam 
navigation. 

FULTON AND THE CLERMONT 

As we shall see in another place, Fulton was no nov- 
ice in the construction of peculiar boats at this time. 

[70] 



THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS 

He had built experimental boats both at home and 
abroad, was familiar with the principle of the screw 
and the paddle-wheel, and had come to have absolute 
confidence in the possibility of propelling boats at a 
good rate of speed by the use of steam. When he be- 
gan his now famous Clermont, in the spring of 1807, it 
was not as an experimental skiff, but as a boat of one 
hundred and fifty tons burden — half again the size of 
the boats in which Columbus had discovered America 
— to be placed in commission between Albany and 
New York city. By August, this boat was completed, 
and the engines in place, and, under her own steam, 
the new boat was moved from the Jersey shipyard 
where she was constructed, and tied up at a New York 
dock. On August 7th, she started on her maiden trip 
up the Hudson. To the astonishment of practically 
every one of the persons in the great throng that had 
gathered along the shores, she left her dock in due 
course, and with wind and tide against her, steamed 
up the river at the rate of about five miles an hour. 
At this speed she covered the entire distance between 
New York and Albany, settling forever the question 
of the practicability of steam navigation. 

The impression this fire-belching monster made 
upon the sleepy inhabitants as it passed along the river 
can be readily imagined. An eye-witness account of 
this first passage of the Clermont has been given by an 
inhabitant at the half-way point near Poughkeepsie. 

"It was the early autumn in 1807," he wrote, "that 
a knot of villagers was gathered on the high bluff just 
opposite Poughkeepsie, on the west bank of the Hud- 

[71] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

son, attracted by the appearance of a strange, dark- 
looking craft which was slowly making its way up the 
river. Some imagined it to be a sea-monster, while 
others did not hesitate to express their belief that it 
was a sign of the approaching Judgment. What seemed 
strange in the vessel was the substitution of lofty and 
straight black smoke-pipes, rising from the deck, in- 
stead of the gracefully tapered masts that commonly 
stood on the vessels navigating the stream; and, in 
place of spars and rigging, the curious play of the 
working-beam and pistons, and the slow turning and 
splashing of the huge, naked paddle-wheels, met the 
astonished gaze. The dense clouds of smoke as they 
rose wave upon wave, added still more to the wonder- 
ment of the rustics. 

"This strange looking craft was the Clermont, on her 
trial trip to Albany. On her return-trip the curiosity 
she excited was scarcely less intense — the whole coun- 
try talked of nothing but the sea-monster, belching fire 
and smoke. The fishermen became terrified and 
rowed homewards, and they saw nothing but destruc- 
tion devastating their fishing grounds; whilst the 
wreaths of black vapor, and rushing noise of the paddle- 
wheels, foaming with the stirred-up water, produced 
great excitement among the boatmen.' ' 

While acknowledging fully Fulton's right to the 
claim of being "the father of steam navigation/ ' as 
he has been called, there is no evidence to show that 
he introduced any new principle or discovery in his 
application of steam to the Clermont. The boiler, 
engine, paddle-wheel — every part of the boat had been 

[72] 




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THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS 

known for years. Yet this does not detract from the 
glory of Fulton, who first combined this scattered 
knowledge in a practical way, and demonstrated the 
practicality beyond question. 



SEA-GOING STEAMSHIPS 

The first war steamer and ocean steamer ever at- 
tempted was built by Fulton, in 1813. It was called 
the Demolgos, and was not a practical success, and 
made no attempts to take protracted ocean voyages. 
The first steamship to cross was the Savannah in 181 9. 
She made the voyage from Savannah to Liverpool in 
twenty-five days, using her paddle-wheels part of the 
time, but at other times depending entirely upon her 
sails. She was a boat of three hundred and fifty tons, 
and her paddle-wheels were arranged so that they 
could be hauled in upon the deck and stowed away in 
bad weather. 

Following the Savannah several similar combination 
sailing and steam-propelled boats were constructed, 
the navigators coming to have more and more faith in 
the possibilities of steam, so that less sail was carried. 
These vessels continued to reduce the time of the pas- 
sage between Europe and America, until the voyage 
had been made in about seventeen days. Then, in 
1838, two vessels, the Sirius and the Great Western, for 
the first time using steam alone as motive power, made 
record voyages, the Great Western crossing in twelve 
days, seven and a half hours. This was considered re- 
markable time — an average speed of over two hundred 

[73] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

miles a day. Something like four hundred and fifty 
tons of coal were consumed on the voyage, which im- 
pressed many as a great extravagance of fuel. Some 
of the ocean liners at present consume more than 
twice this amount in a single day. 

On July 4, 1840, the Britannia, the first steamer of 
the Cunard Line, started on its maiden voyage from 
Liverpool to Boston. The voyage was made in four- 
teen days, among the passengers being Samuel Cunard, 
a Quaker of Halifax, who was the founder of the enter- 
prise. The population of Boston went mad on the 
arrival of this boat; streets and buildings were deco- 
rated, and the day was given over to the regular holi- 
day amusements. Cunard received upward of eigh- 
teen hundred invitations to dinner that evening. 

The year 1840, then, may be considered as one of 
the vital years in the progress of steam navigation. 
Since that time no year has passed without seeing some 
important addition and improvement made in the 
conquest of the ocean, either in size, shape, or speed 
of the "greyhounds." 

SHIPS BUILT OF IRON AND STEEL 

Even before the introduction of steam as a motive 
power for boats shipbuilders had been casting about 
for some satisfactory substitute for wood in the con- 
struction of vessels. One reason for this was that 
suitable wood was becoming scarce and very expen- 
sive. But also there was a limit to the size that a 
wooden vessel might be built with safety. A wooden 

[74] 



THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS 

boat more than three hundred feet long cannot be 
constructed without having dangerous structural 
weakness. 

Naturally the idea that the only suitable material 
for boat-building was something lighter than water, — 
something that would float — which had been handed 
down traditionally for thousands of years, could not be 
overcome in a moment. And surely such a heavy sub- 
stance as iron would not be likely to suggest itself to 
the average ship-builder. But at the beginning of the 
nineteenth century rapid strides were being made in 
theoretical, as well as applied science, and the idea of 
using metal in place of wood for shipbuilding began to 
take practical form. 

Richard Trevithick, whose remarkable experiments 
in locomotive building have been noted in another 
chapter, had planned an iron ship as early as 1809. 
He did not actually construct a vessel, but he made 
detailed plans of one — not merely a boat with an iron 
hull, but with decks, beams, masts, yards, and spars 
made of the same material. It was nearly ten years 
after Trevithick drew his plans, however, before the 
first iron ship was constructed. Then Thomas Wilson 
of Glasgow built a vessel on practically the same lines 
suggested by Trevithick. 

This vessel, finished in 181 8, and called the Vulcan, 
was the pioneer of ail iron boats. For at least sixty 
years it remained in active service. Indeed, for aught 
that is known to the contrary, this first iron boat 
may be still in use in some capacity. 

One of the most surprising and interesting things to 

[75] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

shipbuilders about the Vulcan, and the boats that 
were constructed after her, was the fact that they were 
actually lighter in proportion to their carrying capacity 
than ships of corresponding size built of wood. In 
wooden cargo ships the weight of the hull and fittings 
varies from 35 to 45 per cent, of the total displace- 
ment, while iron vessels vary from 25 to 30 per cent. 
This was a vital point in favor of the iron vessel, and 
one that appealed directly to practical builders. But 
the public at large looked askance at the new vessels. 
To "sink like a stone" was proverbial; and everyone 
knows that iron sinks quite as readily as stone. 

But very soon a convincing demonstration of the 
strength of iron vessels brought them into favor. A 
great storm, sweeping along the coast of Great Britain 
in 1835, drove many vessels on shore, among them an 
iron steamboat just making her maiden voyage. The 
wooden vessels without exception were wrecked, most 
of them destroyed, but the iron vessel, although sub- 
jected to the same conditions, escaped without injury, 
thanks to the material and method of her construction. 

From that time the position of the iron steamship 
was assured. And whereas sea voyagers had formerly 
looked askance at iron passenger boats they now began 
to distrust those built of wood. By the middle of the 
century, iron shipbuilding was at its height, and in the 
decade immediately following, the Great Eastern was 
finished — possibly the largest and most remarkable 
structure ever built of iron, on land or sea. In recent 
years larger ships have been constructed, but these 
ships are made of steel. 

[76] 



THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS 

The Great Eastern marked an epoch in shipbuild- 
ing. In size she was a generation ahead of her time, 
but the innovations in the method of her construction 
gave the cue to modern revolutionary shipbuilding 
methods. Sir George C. V. Holmes gives the following 
account of the great ship: 

"She was originally intended by the famous engi- 
neer, Mr. I. K. Brunei, to trade between England and 
the East. She was designed to make the voyage to 
Australia without calling anywhere en route to coal, a 
feat which, in the then state of steam-engine economy, 
no other vessel could accomplish. It was supposed 
that this advantage, coupled with the high speed ex- 
pected from her great length, would secure for her the 
command of the enormous cargoes which would be 
necessary to fill her. Mr. Brunei communicated his 
idea that such a vessel should be constructed for the 
trade to the East to the famous engineer and ship- 
builder, the late Mr. John Scott Russell, F.R.S., and 
he further persuaded his clients, the directors of the 
Eastern Steam Navigation Company, of the soundness 
of his views, for they resolved that the projected vessel 
should be built for their company, and entrusted the 
contract for its execution to the firm of John Scott 
Russell & Co., of Millwall. 

"Mr. Scott Russell and Mr. Brunei were, between 
them, entitled to the credit of the design, which, on 
account of the exceptional size of the ship, presented 
special difficulties, and involved a total departure from 
ordinary practice. 

"Mr. Scott Russell had systematically, in his own 

[77] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

previous practice, constructed iron ships with cellular 
bottoms, but the cells had only five sides, the upper- 
most side on the inside being uncovered. Over a large 
portion, however, of the bottom of the Great Eastern 
the cells were completed by the addition of an inner 
bottom, which added greatly both to the strength and 
to the safety of the ship. It was also Mr. Brunei's 
idea that the great ship should be propelled by both 
paddles and screw. Mr. Scott Russell was responsible 
for the lines and dimensions, and also for the longi- 
tudinal system of framing, with its numerous complete 
and partial transverse and longitudinal bulkheads. 

"The following are some of the principal dimensions 
and other data of the Great Eastern: 

Length between perpendiculars 680 feet 

Length on upper deck 692 " 

Extreme breadth of hull 83 " 

Width over paddle-box 12.0 " 

Depth from upper deck to keel 58 " 

Draught of water (laden) 30 " 

Weight of iron used in construction 10,000 tons 

Number of plates used in construction 30,000 

Number of rivets used in construction 3,000,000 

Tonnage, gross 18,914 tons 

Nominal power of paddle engine 1,000 H. P. 

Nominal-power of screw engines 1,600 " 

"The accommodation for passengers was on an un- 
precedented scale. There were no less than five saloons 
on the upper, and as many on the lower deck, the aggre- 
gate length of the principal apartments being 400 feet. 
There was accommodation for 800 first-class, 2,000 
second-class, and 1,200 third-class passengers, and the 
crew numbered 400. The upper deck, which was of 
a continuous iron-plated and cellular structure, ran 

[78] 



THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS 

flush from stem to stern, and was twenty feet wide on 
each side of the hatchways; thus two spacious prome- 
nades were provided, each over a furlong in length. 
The capacity for coal and cargo was 18,000 tons. 

"The attempts to launch this vessel were most disas- 
trous, and cost no less than £120,000, an expense which 
ruined the company. The original company was wound 
up, and the great ship sold for £160,000 to a new com- 
pany, and was completed in the year 1859. The new 
company very unwisely determined to put her on the 
American station, for which she was in no way suited. 
During her preliminary trip the pilot reported that she 
made a speed of fully 14 knots at two-thirds of full 
pressure, but the highest rate of speed which she at- 
tained on this occasion was 15 knots, and on her first 
journey across the Atlantic the average speed was 
nearly 14 knots, the greatest distance run in a day hav- 
ing been 333 nautical miles. The great value of the 
system adopted in her construction was proved by an 
accident which occurred during one of her Transatlan- 
tic voyages. She ran against a pointed rock, but the 
voyage was continued without hindrance. It was after- 
wards found that holes of the combined length of over 
100 feet had been torn in her outer bottom; but, thanks 
to the inner water-tight skin, no water was admitted." 

Between the years i860 and 1870 great improvements 
were made in marine engines, and screw-steamers very 
generally replaced side- wheel boats for ocean trafhc. 
The improvements in the engines consisted largely in 
the use of higher pressures, surface condensation, and 
compounding of the cylinders, which resulted in a sav- 

[79] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

ing of about half the amount of fuel over engines of 
the older type. As a result steamers were able to com- 
pete successfully with the sailing ships, even as freighters 
for long voyages, such as those between Europe and 
Australia. 

During the reactive period in France immediately 
following the Franco- Prussian war, when there was 
great activity in shipbuilding, the use of mild steel 
plates in place of wrought iron was tried. The supe- 
riority of this material over iron was quickly demon- 
strated, and as the cost of steel was constantly less- 
ening, thanks to the newly discovered methods of 
production, steel practically replaced iron in ship 
construction after this time. 

It was during this same period that a new type of 
passenger steamer was produced — the "ocean grey- 
hound. " The first of these was the Oceanic, built by 
the White Star Company in 1871. This ship was re- 
markable in many ways. Her length, four hundred 
and twenty feet, was more than ten times her beam; 
iron railings were substituted for bulwarks; and the 
passenger quarters were shifted from the position near 
the stern to the middle of the vessel. All these changes 
proved to be distinct improvements, and the Oceanic 
became at once the most popular, as well as the fastest 
ocean liner. 

Like all the other boats of the seventies and early 
eighties, the Oceanic was a single-screw vessel. The 
advantage of double propellers in case of accident had 
long been recognized, but hitherto twin-screws had not 
proved as efficient as a single screw in developing speed. 

[80] 



THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS 

But in 1888 the City of Paris (now the Philadelphia) 
a twin-screw boat, began making new speed records, 
and the following year her sister ship, the New York, 
and the new Majestic and Teutonic, entering into the 
ocean-record contests, cut the time of the passage be- 
tween Europe and America to less than six days. 

The advantages of the double-screw over the single 
are so many and so manifest as to leave no question as 
to their superiority. The disabling of the shaft or screw 
of the single-screw steamer, or the derangement of her 
rudder renders the vessel helpless. Not so the twin- 
screw ship; for on such ships the screws can be used 
for steering as well as propelling. And it has happened 
many times that twin-screw ships have crossed the 
ocean with the steering gear disabled, or with one screw 
entirely out of commission. 

THE TRIUMPH OF THE TURBINE 

In recent years the greatest revolutionary step in 
steamship construction has been the invention and 
development of the turbine engine, the mechanism of 
which has been described elsewhere. Since the day of 
the little Turbinia, whose speed astonished the nautical 
world, the limit for size and speed of ships has again 
been materially advanced, and no thinking person will 
venture to predict restricting limits without a modify- 
ing question mark. 

At the beginning of the twentieth century a keen 
rivalry had developed between England and the Con- 
tinent for supremacy in transatlantic traffic, America 
having dropped out of the race. The Germans in par- 

VOL. VII. — 6 [ 8l ] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

ticular had produced fast boats, such as the Deutsch- 
land and Kaiser Wilhelm II, which for several years 
held the ocean record for speed. But meanwhile the 
turbine engine was being perfected in England, the 
land of its invention, and presently turbine " grey- 
hounds" began crossing the ocean and menacing the 
records held by the boats equipped with the older 
type of engine. 

The reciprocating marine engine, however, had been 
steadily improved, until it was a marvel in efficiency. 
Quadruple expansion engines driving twin-screws of a 
size and shape known to develop the greatest efficiency, 
for several years offered invincible competition to the 
new type of engine. There were new conditions to be 
met, new difficulties to be overcome. 

A decisive test of the merits of the turbine engine was 
given in 1905, when the Cunard Company built two 
vessels, the Caronia and Carmania, of exactly the same 
size and shape, the Caronia having the highest type of 
quadruple expansion reciprocating engines, while the 
Carmania was equipped with turbine engines. Here 
was a fair test of efficiency between the two types. And 
the turbine boat proved herself the better of the two by 
developing more than a knot greater speed per hour. 

Still the Carmania offered no serious competition in 
speed to several of the German flyers. But in 1908 
two more turbine ships, the Lusitania and Mauretania 
began making regular transatlantic voyages, and 
quickly distanced all competitors. 

In size as well as in speed these sister ships mark an 
epoch in navigation. Turbine engines take the place 

[82] 



THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS 

of the usual reciprocating type, acting on four propellers 
for going ahead, and two separate propellers for going 
astern. These engines develop 68,000 horse-power. 
Stated in this way these figures convey little idea of the 
power developed. But when we say that it would take 
a line of horses one hundred and twenty miles long 
hitched tandem to develop the power generated in the 
compact space of the Mauretania's engine room, some 
idea of the power is gained. 

It is not the matter of power, size, or speed alone 
that makes the twentieth century passenger steamer 
so completely outclass her predecessors. It is really 
the matter of comfort and safety afforded the ocean 
travelers. Safety against sinking from injury to the 
hull was provided for by the introduction of water- 
tight compartments half a century ago, as we have 
seen; and the size of the Great Eastern has been sur- 
passed in only a few instances. But it is since the begin- 
ning of the present century that two revolutionary 
safety devices have been perfected — wireless telegraphy 
and the submarine signaling apparatus. The wireless 
apparatus has been described in another chapter, and 
as it is used almost as much on land as at sea, cannot 
be considered as solely a nautical appliance. But 
the submarine signaling device, which is dependent 
upon water for transmission, is essentially a nautical 
mechanism. 

SUBMARINE SIGNALING 

It is difficult for the average landsman to appreciate 
that the one thing most dreaded by mariners is fog. 

[83] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

Dark and boisterous nights which frighten the distressed 
landsman have no terrors for the sailor. Given an 
open sea-way he knows that he can ride out any gale 
that blows. It is the foggy night that fills him with 
apprehension. 

In perfectly still weather the sound of the fog horn 
carries far enough, and indicates location well enough 
so that two ships approaching each other, or a ship 
approaching a bell buoy, can detect its location and 
avoid danger. But this is under favorable conditions; 
and unfortunately such conditions do not always pre- 
vail. And if there is a wind stirring or the sea running 
high atmospheric sounds cannot be depended upon. 
A fog whistle whose sound ought to carry several miles 
under ordinary conditions, may not be heard more 
than a ship's length away. And scores of accidents, 
such as collisions between ships, have happened in 
fogs, when both vessels were sounding their fog whistles 
at regular intervals. 

When wireless telegraphy was perfected sufficiently to 
to be of practical use, great hopes were entertained 
that this discovery could be used to give warning and 
prevent accidents to fog-bound vessels. But experi- 
ence has shown that its usefulness is confined largely 
to that of calling for help after the accident, rather 
than in preventing it. Thus in 1908 when the wireless 
operator on board the steamer Republic flashed his 
message broadcast telling ships and shore-stations for 
hundreds of miles around that his vessel had been run 
down in a fog and was sinking, he could only give the 
vessels that hurried to the Republic's aid an approxi- 

[84] 



THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS 

mate idea of where they could find her. The use of 
another electric appliance, of even more recent inven- 
tion than the wireless telegraph, was necessary for 
locating the exact position of the stricken ship. This 
was the submarine signaling device, which utilizes 
water instead of air as a medium for transmitting 
sound. 

Benjamin Franklin pointed out more than a century 
ago that water carries sound farther and faster than 
air, and carries it with greater constancy. Density, 
temperature, and motion of the atmosphere act upon 
aerial sound waves to reflect and refract them in vary- 
ing degrees; but these waves are not affected when 
water is the medium through which they are passing. 
The knowledge of these facts was turned to little prac- 
tical account until the closing years of the last century 
when Arthur J. Mundy of Boston, and a little later 
Prof. Elisha Gray of Chicago, began experiments to- 
gether that resulted finally in a practical submarine 
signaling apparatus which is now installed as a system 
on boats and buoys in dangerous places along the coasts, 
particularly near the great highways of ocean travel. 

The principle upon which this system is based is 
simply that of sound waves transmitted through the 
water and detected at a distance by a submerged elec- 
trical transmitter. The sound transmitted is usually 
that of a submerged bell. It is possible for a person 
whose head is submerged to hear the ringing of such 
a bell distinctly for a long distance; but of course for 
practical purposes such submergence is out of the 
question. The receiving apparatus of the Mundy- 

[85] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

Gray signaling device offers a substitute in the form of 
a submerged " artificial ear" — an electrical transmit- 
ter, connected with a telephone receiver. 

In the early experiments a small hollow brass ball 
filled with water and containing a special form of elec- 
trical transmitter was lowered over the side of a ship 
and connected by insulated wires to the receiver of a 
telephone in the pilot house. The sound of a sub- 
merged bell could be heard in this manner at a dis- 
tance of ten or twelve miles. The location of the bell 
could be determined by having two such brass balls, 
one on each side of the hull of the vessel but not sub- 
merged to a depth below that of the hull, so that the 
ship itself acts as a screen in obstructing the sound 
waves coming from the bell. By listening alternately 
to the sounds of the bell transmitted through these two 
submerged balls it was found that the ball on the side 
of the ship toward the bell gave a distinctly louder 
sound. By turning the ship so that the sounds were of 
equal intensity the direction of the bell could be deter- 
mined as either directly ahead or astern; and by using 
the compass the exact location could be determined. 

But such brass-ball transmitters can be used only 
when the vessel is moving at a rate not exceeding three 
miles an hour. They are, therefore, of little value for 
ocean liners whose reduced speed far exceeds this. But 
the inventors discovered presently that by using the 
inside of the outer steel skin of the ship's hull below 
the water line as one side of the brass ball, the trans- 
mitter would work equally well. Indeed, with added 
improvements, this hollow metal device fastened to the 

[86] 






THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS 

inside of the hull on each side, with connecting wires 
leading to the pilot house, in its perfected form will 
pick up the sound of the submerged bell equally well 
at any speed, regardless of calm or storm. 

The chief defect of this arrangement was that the 
sound of the pulsations of the engines of the ship were 
also heard, and interfered seriously with the detection 
of the sound of the bell. But presently a receiving de- 
vice was perfected which ignored all sounds but those 
of the bell, thus giving the mariner a means of protec- 
tion against accidents that could be depended upon 
absolutely at ail times regardless of speed or weather 
conditions. 

When this stage of perfection of the signaling device 
was reached the various governments began installing 
the instruments on buoys, lighthouse sites, and light- 
ships, using various mechanical devices for ringing the 
bells, and timing the strokes so that the mariners could 
tell by the intervals just what bell he was in touch with, 
as he knows each lighthouse by the intervals between 
the flashes of its lights. A further development in the 
signaling device was to equip ships with submerged 
bells, as well as with the receiving apparatus. In this 
way two ships could communicate with each other, or 
with a shore receiving station, by using the Morse 
telegraph code, just as in the case of telegraphy. 

The maximum distance at which such communica- 
tions may be detected is about fifteen miles, and the 
approximate distance from the bell can be gauged 
from the clearness of the sound heard in the tele- 
phone receiver. At the distance of a quarter of a mile 

[8 7 ] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

the sound of the bell is so loud that it is painful to the 
listener if the receiver is held against the ear, while at 
ten or twelve miles the sound is scarcely audible. 

Probably the most dramatic rescue at sea in recent 
years was that of the passengers and crew of the steamer 
Republic, referred to a few pages back. When her 
wireless messages of distress were received a score of 
vessels went groping in the fog to her assistance, while 
the entire civilized world waited in breathless expect- 
ancy. Most of the rescuing vessels, although constantly 
in communication with the stricken ship, were unable 
to locate her. But the successful vessel finally got in 
touch with the Republic's submarine signaling appara- 
tus, and aided by this located the vessel and rescued 
the crew and passengers. 

This is only one instance of the practical application 
of the submarine signaling apparatus. But its use is 
not confined to the larger boats. The apparatus can 
be made so small that even boats the size of a fishing 
dory may be equipped at least with the sounding de- 
vice, and thus protected. 

On the Newfoundland fishing banks one of the chief 
causes of loss of life is the running down of the fishing 
boats in the fog by passing steamers, and also the loss 
of the dories of the fishermen who are unable to find 
their way back to their vessels. Many of these fishing 
vessels now supply each of the attending dories with a 
submarine bell which weighs about forty pounds and 
is run by clockwork. When caught in the fog the fish- 
erman hangs this bell over the side of his dory and 
thus warns approaching steamers of his position, at the 

[88] 



THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS 

same time affording his own vessel a guide for finding 
him and picking him up. In this manner the appalling 
loss of life in the fogs on the fishing banks has been 
greatly lessened. Thus the submarine signaling device 
gives aid to the smaller craft as well as the larger vessels. 

For the moment this is the last important safety de- 
vice that has been invented to help lessen the perils 
of sea voyages. Indeed the perils and discomforts of 
ocean voyages are now largely reminiscent, thanks to 
the rapid succession of scientific discoveries and their 
practical application during the last half century. The 
size of modern vessels minimizes rolling and pitching. 
Turbine engines practically eliminate engine vibra- 
tions. The danger from fires was practically elim- 
inated by the introduction of iron and steel as building 
material; the danger of sinking after collisions is now 
guarded against by the division of the ship's hull into 
water-tight compartments; sensitive instruments as 
used at present warn the mariner of the presence of 
ice-bergs; wireless telegraphy affords a means of call- 
ing aid in case of disabled machinery and giving the 
ship's location in a general way; while the submarine 
signal makes known the exact location of the stricken 
vessel in foggy weather. 

In a trifle over half a century the time of crossing the 
Atlantic has been reduced by more than one-half. In 
1856 the Persia crossed the ocean between Queens- 
town and New York in nine days, one hour, and forty- 
five minutes, making a new record. In 1909 the Maure- 
tania covered the same distance in four days, ten hours, 
and fifty-one minutes. In March, 19 10, the same vessel 

[89] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

completed a passage over the longer winter course, a 
distance of 2,889 knots, in four days, fifteen hours, and 
twenty-nine minutes, reducing the previous record by 
twenty-nine minutes. 

When the Lusitania and Mauretania were completed 
many short-sighted persons predicted that these vessels 
would never be surpassed in size or speed. As if to 
refute such predictions, however, the White Star Com- 
pany at once began constructing two vessels, the Olym- 
pic and Titanic, each with a displacement of one-fourth 
more than the great Cunarders, and of overshadowing 
proportions in everything save the matter of speed. 
Against the Mauretania' 's average twenty-six knot speed 
the new boats are designed to make only twenty-one. 

These new boats are eight hundred and ninety feet 
in length, as against the Lusitania' ] s seven hundred and 
ninety. They are ninety-two feet in beam, and sixty- 
two feet in molded depth. The roof of the pilot house 
is seventy feet above the water. The maximum draft 
is thirty-seven and a half feet and the displacement 
sixty thousand tons. 

They resemble the Great Eastern in that they have 
two systems of engines. Two reciprocating engines 
drive the two outer of the three screws, and the ex- 
haust from these engines is utilized in a low-pressure 
turbine engine, driving the center propeller. 

LIQUID FUEL 

Another step that has been taken to increase the effi- 
ciency of the steam engine on ships, is the adoption of 

[90] 



THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS 

liquid fuel in place of coal for making steam. For 
years the advantages of this form of fuel have been 
recognized, the Russians having brought its use to a 
high state of perfection, both in boats and locomotives. 
Practically all the steamers on the Black and Caspian 
seas, as well as on such rivers as the Volga, burn oil 
exclusively. And early in 1910 the British Navy de- 
cided to substitute oil for coal on all its vessels. 

The advantages claimed for oil over coal as fuel are 
many. It is smokeless, produces more heat than coal, 
occupies less space for storage, can be loaded more 
quickly and easily, is cleaner, and reduces the engine- 
room force to one-fourth or one-third the number of 
men required when coal is used. Incidentally it re- 
duces the difficult physical task of stoking to one rela- 
tively pleasant and easy. It gives a steadier fire, does 
not foul the boilers, and does away with cumbersome 
ashes and clinkers. 

Its disadvantage lies in the danger from fire. An in- 
flammable liquid carried in a ship's hold is obviously 
more dangerous than a corresponding quantity of rela- 
tively incombustible coal. Yet the obvious advantages 
of this form of fuel have been so compelling that it is 
now coming into use on all classes of war vessels, and 
seems likely to supplant coal entirely on some types of 
boats, such as the torpedo destroyers. Moreover, the 
experience of the Russian boats on the Black and Cas- 
pian seas seems to indicate that the dangers from the 
use of oil as a fuel when properly handled have been 
greatly exaggerated, and passenger and freight steamers 
all over the world are gradually adopting it. 

[91] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

Some tests were made by the Navy Department of 
the United States in 1909-1910 using a vessel which 
was formerly a coal-burning boat. In these tests it was 
found that the steaming radius was greatly increased, 
the firing force reduced, and fuel taken into the ship 
in about one-fourth the time it takes to coal. It was 
possible to get up steam in any boiler, or set of boilers, 
much more quickly than with coal. 

Of course where oil is used for fuel some special 
form of burner is necessary. Many types have been 
tried, but in the most effective the oil is atomized by 
the use of steam spray, or air blast, it being impossible 
to get proper combustion of the oil except when used 
in minutely divided particles. Used in this manner a 
uniform temperature can be maintained easily, or may 
be increased or decreased very quickly. 

As used at present liquid fuel simply substitutes coal 
for heating the ordinary type of boiler. But there 
seems every reason to believe that in the near future 
some type of internal combustion engine will be per- 
fected that will use the crude, cheap oil, as the finer 
and lighter oils are used in motors to-day. When this 
occurs the space-consuming boilers and furnaces used 
in ships at present will be replaced by compact machin- 
ery, quite as efficient, but occupying only a fraction of 
the space. Nor need we expect that the invention of 
some such type of engine will be long delayed, if we 
may judge by the rapid strides made in perfecting other 
internal combustion engines during the past few years. 



[92] 



Ill 

SUBMARINE VESSELS 

THE development of submarine vessels has been 
one of the slowest in the history of modern 
inventions. Submarine boats, using sub- 
marine torpedoes, were able to destroy ships a hun- 
dred years ago; and a little less than half a century 
ago naval vessels were destroyed in actual warfare by 
these boats. But curiously enough no vessel has ever 
been destroyed in actual warfare by a submarine boat 
since that time. Yet these boats are essentially war- 
vessels, and, with the exception of boats of the Lake 
type, of no use whatever for commercial purposes. 

Perhaps the explanation for this tardy development 
lies in the fact that until recent years naval men have 
not looked with favor upon this style of fighting craft. 
In Admiral Porter's book, written in 1878, he makes 
the statement that one of the reasons why they did not 
show more enthusiasm about the submarine made by 
Robert Fulton early in the nineteenth century, was 
that such boats "menaced the position of the naval 
men, whose calling would be gone did the little sub- 
marine boat supplant the battle-ship." We need not, 
however, depend upon this statement, made as it was 
three-quarters of a century after the demonstrations by 
Fulton, for there are many similar statements made at 

[93] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

the time to be had at first hand. Thus Admiral Earl 
St. Vincent, when opposing the views of William Pitt, 
who had become enthusiastic over the possibilities of 
Fulton's submarines, is on record as having opposed 
such craft on the ground that by encouraging such de- 
velopment "he was laying the foundation which would 
do away with the navy." In 1802, M. St. Aubin wrote 
in this connection, "What will become of the navies, 
and where will sailors be found to man ships of war, 
when it is a physical certainty that they may at any 
time be blown into the air by diving boats, against 
which no human foresight can guard them?" 

Such opposition has undoubtedly tended to retard 
the progress of submarine navigation; but be the 
cause what it may, it has made slow and laborious 
work of it ; and we are only now approaching a solution 
of the question that seemed almost within grasp a hun- 
dred years ago — before the days of steam or electricity. 

THE FIRST SUBMARINE 

As early as the sixteenth century the possibilities of 
submarine navigation was the dream of the mariner, 
and tentative attempts at submarine boats are said to 
have been made even at an earlier period than this; 
but the first practical submarine boat capable of navi- 
gation entirely submerged for any length of time was 
made by David Bushnell, of Westbrook (then Say- 
brook), Maine, U. S. A., in 1775. Details as to the 
construction of the remarkable craft, are recorded in a 
letter written by the inventor to Thomas Jefferson in 

[94] 



SUBMARINE VESSELS 

1789, and recorded in the Transactions of the American 
Philosophical Society. In this letter Bushnell says: — 

"The external shape of the submarine vessel bore 
some resemblance to the upper tortoise shells of equal 
size, joined together, the place of entrance into the 
vessel being represented by the opening made by the 
swell of the shells at the head of the animal. The in- 
side was capable of containing the operator and air 
sufficient to support him thirty minutes without re- 
ceiving fresh air. At the bottom, opposite to the en- 
trance, was fixed a quantity of lead for ballast. At one 
edge, which was directly before the operator, who sat 
upright, was an oar for rowing forward and backward. 
At the other edge was a rudder for steering. An aper- 
ture at the bottom, with its valves, was designed to 
admit water for the purpose of descending, and two 
brass forcing-pumps served to eject the water within 
when necessary for ascending. At the top there was 
likewise an oar for ascending or descending, or con- 
tinuing at any particular depth. A water-gauge or 
barometer determined the depth of descent, a compass 
directed the course, and a ventilator within supplied 
the vessel with fresh air when on the surface. 

"The vessel was chiefly ballasted with lead fixed to 
its bottom ; when this was not sufficient a quantity was 
placed within, more or less according to the weight of 
the operator; its ballast made it so stiff that there was 
no danger of oversetting. The vessel, with all its appen- 
dages and the operator, was of sufficient weight to settle 
it very low in the water. About two hundred pounds 
of lead at the bottom for ballast could be let down 

[95] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

forty or fifty feet below the vessel; this enabled the 
operator to rise instantly to the surface of the water in 
case of accident. 

"When the operator would descend, he placed his 
foot upon the top of a brass valve, depressing it, by 
which he opened a large aperture in the bottom of the 
vessel, through which the water entered at his pleasure ; 
when he had admitted a sufficient quantity he descended 
very gradually; if he admitted too much he ejected 
as much as was necessary to obtain an equilibrium by 
the two brass forcing-pumps which were placed at 
each hand. Whenever the vessel leaked, or he would 
ascend to the surface, he also made use of these forc- 
ing-pumps. When the skillful operator had obtained 
an equilibrium he would row upward or downward, or 
continue at any particular depth, with an oar placed 
near the top of the vessel, formed upon the principle 
of the screw, the axis of the oar entering the vessel; by 
turning the oar one way he raised the vessel, by turn- 
ing it the other he depressed it. 

"An oar, formed upon the principle of a screw, was 
fixed in the fore part of the vessel; its axis entered the 
vessel, and being turned one way, rowed the vessel for- 
ward, but being turned the other way rowed it back- 
ward ; it was made to be turned by the hand or foot. 

"Behind the submarine vessel was a place above 
the rudder for carrying a large powder magazine. This 
was made of two pieces of oak timber, large enough 
when hollowed out to contain one hundred and fifty 
pounds of powder, with the apparatus used in firing it, 
and was secured in its place by a screw turned by the 

[96] 



SUBMARINE VESSELS 

operator. A strong piece of rope extended from the 
magazine to the wood screw above mentioned, and was 
fastened to both. When the wood screw was fixed to 
be cast off from its tube, the magazine was to be cast 
off likewise by unscrewing it, leaving it hanging to the 
wood screw ; it was lighter than the water, that it might 
rise up against the object to which the wood screw and 
itself were fastened. 

"Within the magazine was an apparatus constructed 
to run any proposed length of time under twelve hours ; 
when it had run its time it unpinioned a strong lock 
resembling a gun-lock, which gave fire to the powder. 
This apparatus was so pinioned that it could not pos- 
sibly move till, by casting off the magazine from the 
vessel, it was set in motion. 

"The skillful operator could swim so low on the sur- 
face of the water as to approach very near a ship in 
the night without fear of being discovered, and might, 
if he chose, approach the stem or stern above the water 
with very little danger. He could sink very quickly, 
keep at any depth he pleased, and row a great dis- 
tance in any direction he desired without coming to the 
surface, and when he rose to the surface he could soon 
obtain a fresh supply of air. If necessary, he might 
descend again and pursue his course. 

"After various attempts to find an operator to my 
wish, I sent one who appeared more expert than the 
rest from New York to a fifty-gun ship lying not far 
from Governor's Island. He went under the ship and 
attempted to fix the wooden screw in her bottom, but 
struck, as he supposed, a bar of iron which passes 
vol. vii.— 7 [97] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

from the rudder hinge, and is spiked under the ship's 
quarter. Had he moved a few inches, which he might 
have done without rowing, I have no doubt but that he 
would have found wood where he might have fixed the 
screw, or if the ship were sheathed with copper he 
might easily have pierced it; but not being well skilled 
in the management of the vessel, in attempting to move 
to another place he lost the ship. After seeking her in 
vain for some time he rowed some distance and rose 
to the surface of the water, but found daylight had 
advanced to far that he durst not renew the attempt. 
He says that he could easily have fastened the maga- 
zine under the stem of the ship above the water, as he 
rowed up to the stern and touched it before he de- 
scended. Had he fastened it there the explosion of one 
hundred and fifty pounds of powder (the quantity con- 
tained in the magazine) must have been fatal to the 
ship. In his return from the ship to New York he 
passed near Governor's Island, and thought he was 
discovered by the enemy on the island. Being in haste 
to avoid the danger he feared, he cast off the maga- 
zine, as he imagined it retarded him in the swell, which 
was very considerable. After the magazine had been 
cast off one hour, the time the infernal apparatus was 
set to run, it blew up with great violence. " 

ROBERT FULTON'S EXPERIMENTS 

The work begun by Bushnell in 1775 was taken up 
ten years later by Robert Fulton whose diving-boats 
so nearly fulfilled the conditions necessary for practical 

[98] 




ROBERT FULTON. 



SUBMARINE VESSELS 

submarine navigation. As America was at peace at 
this time, and as her financial condition was at the 
lowest ebb, Fulton transferred his skill and energy to 
Europe which was then involved in the Napoleonic 
wars. Several attempts were made to interest the 
French government in his invention, but although cer- 
tain commissions reported favorably on his ideas, noth- 
ing came of them for a time. In 1800, however, Fulton 
succeeded in interesting Napoleon in his scheme, and 
the following year he was given the opportunity of 
building his first submarine boat, the Nautilus. This 
boat was cigar shaped, about twenty-one feet long and 
seven feet in diameter, and made of copper supported 
by iron ribs. When operating at the surface this boat 
used a peculiarly shaped sail; but when submerged it 
was propelled by a screw actuated by machinery turned 
by hand. In this boat, Fulton, with three companions, 
descended to a depth of twenty-three feet and remained 
submerged for twenty minutes; and at a depth of five 
or six feet they are said to have remained submerged 
for six hours, air being supplied by a copper vessel, 
probably containing oxygen or compressed air. 

The first experiment made in attempting actually to 
destroy a vessel with the Nautilus, was successful, a 
small vessel being sunk. Encouraged by this success 
Fulton proposed to build larger boats of this same type 
capable of destroying the largest battle-ships. In re- 
turn he asked that a reward be paid him for each 
vessel destroyed, the price of his diving boat reim- 
bursed, and a patent be given himself and the mem- 
bers of his crew, so that in case of capture they would 

[99] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

be treated as prisoners of war and not hanged as 
pirates. Strangely enough this latter clause was the 
greatest stumbling-block, as the proposed methods of 
destroying battle-ships by torpedoes was held in such 
disrepute that the French government would not grant 
a patent rating the crew of torpedo boats or submarine 
boats as legitimate belligerents. In effect, their atti- 
tude was, that while a person was at liberty to de- 
stroy an empire from the surface of the water, he 
would be hanged as a criminal if he dived beneath the 
surface and destroyed a boat. 

Discouraged by this stand of the French government, 
Fulton removed to England, where he succeeded in 
interesting the prime-minister, William Pitt, in his 
novel boat. A commission was appointed consisting 
of a number of prominent men, including Mr. Pitt, and 
Fulton was requested to demonstrate what could be 
done in actual practice by his submarine. On October 
15, 1805, an old brig detailed for the purpose was de- 
stroyed by Fulton by the explosion of a torpedo con- 
taining one hundred and seventy pounds of powder. 
Yet in the face of this remarkable demonstration the 
commission remained unfavorable to Fulton's scheme, 
although Mr. Pitt to the last retained his faith in the 
possibilities of such boats. 

Recognizing that further attempts in England would 
be fruitless, Fulton returned to the United States. 
Here, in 18 10, Congress became sufficiently interested 
to appropriate five thousand dollars to assist him in 
his work, and as a final test of the boat he had built, 
the naval authorities prepared the brig Argus to resist 

[100] 



SUBMARINE VESSELS 

an attack by the submarine. This preparation con- 
sisted in surrounding her with protecting booms of 
logs, supporting strong netting, and held a distance 
from the hull by spars. In fact all possible means 
short of actually building a wall about the Argus were 
taken to defeat the attack. It is probable that the 
brig, when her preparations for defense were com- 
pleted, would have been invulnerable even to a modern 
torpedo, and it is not surprising, therefore, that Ful- 
ton's attack upon her utterly failed. 

Commenting upon this failure and the means taken 
by the authorities to protect the Argus, Fulton signifi- 
cantly remarked that the very fact that a war vessel 
was obliged to make use of such means to protect her- 
self against a system of attack then in its infancy, 
spoke volumes for the possibilities of this method of 
attacking when it should be more fully developed. 

But although this failure to destroy the Argus caused 
Congress to withdraw its aid for future experiments in 
submarine warfare, Fulton himself never lost faith in 
the importance of his work. Even after his successful 
invention of the steamboat, for surface navigation, he 
is said to have remarked that, while this invention was 
important, it could in no wise compare with the revo- 
lutionary effects upon navigation that would eventu- 
ally be produced by submarine boats. And despite his 
failure to convince the government of the possibilities 
of his diving boats, he continued his experiments with 
them. How nearly he succeeded in making a practical 
submarine was shown in the second war with England 
that followed soon after. 

[ioi] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

In this war a " diving boat," supposed to have been 
one of Fulton's submarines, made several attacks upon 
the British man-of-war Ramillies off New London, in 
the summer of 1813. In the first two attempts the ap- 
proach of the submarine was detected by the crew of 
the man-of-war, who cut their cables, and stood out 
of the harbor as quickly as possible. In the third at- 
tempt, the diving boat succeeded in coming up in a 
position directly under the Ramillies, fastened itself 
to the keel and made a hole in the planking large 
enough to receive the screw which was to fasten the 
torpedo in place. In the act of fastening it, however, 
this screw was broken off, and the attempt had to be 
abandoned for the moment. 

This attack created such a panic aboard the British 
boat, that she did not return to the inner harbor but 
kept constantly in motion outside. Not satisfied with 
this protection against such "dishonorable attempts," 
the British commander took on board his vessel a hun- 
dred prisoners, apprising the Americans of the fact, 
and assuring them that a similar action would be taken 
by all the ships of the British fleet, so that in case a 
vessel was torpedoed the American prisoners would be 
blown up with her crew. This effectually frustrated 
Fulton's plans; for when the fact became known in 
the United States, the Americans were naturally as 
vigorous as the British in protesting against Fulton 
and his boats. 

Obviously the rule that " everything is fair in war" 
was not accepted in practice a hundred years ago. 
Fulton's attempts were regarded as the acts of a pirate, 

[102] 



SUBMARINE VESSELS 

those of the British commander as perfectly legitimate 
and honorable methods. 

A SUCCESSFUL DIVING BOAT 

From the time of Fulton to the outbreak of the 
American Civil War there were few attempts at sub- 
marine navigation. On the opening of this war, how- 
ever, efforts were made to perfect diving boats; and 
these efforts were so well directed that eventually one 
of these boats succeeded in destroying the Federal 
boat Housatonic in Charleston Harbor on the night of 
February 17, 1864. 

The submarine that accomplished this was one of 
the most remarkable boats ever constructed. It was 
cigar shaped, about sixty feet long, and carried a crew 
of nine men. It was submerged partly by means of 
ballast tanks and partly by lateral fins. As a weapon 
it carried a spar torpedo fastened to its blunt nose. 
It was propelled by hand-power, eight of the nine mem- 
bers of the crew working on a crank which actuated 
the propeller. The ninth man, crouching in the bow, 
steered the boat. No reserve air was carried, and con- 
sequently the length of time the boat could remain 
submerged was limited to a very few minutes. On 
account of this, and because of its unfortunate career, 
it was aptly called the " peripatetic coffin"; and it jus- 
tified this name by sinking five different times, drown- 
ing thirty-five out of forty of the members of its differ- 
ent crews. Nevertheless it succeeded in destroying an 
American war vessel, thus demonstrating that this feat 
is possible under condition of actual warfare. 

[103] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

The submarines of the Civil War came to be known 
by the general name of " Davids," and several of them 
of different types were built. The only successful 
attack of any of these Davids, however, was the one 
which destroyed the Housatonic. In his book, The 
Naval History of the Civil War, Admiral Porter de- 
scribed this attack upon the Housatonic as follows: — 

a At about 8.45 p.m. the officer of the deck on board 
the unfortunate vessel discovered something about one 
hundred yards away, moving along the water. It came 
directly toward the ship, and within two minutes of the 
time it was first sighted was alongside. The cable 
was slipped, the engines backed, and all hands called 
to quarters. But it was too late — the torpedo struck 
the Housatonic just forward of the mainmast, on the 
starboard side, in a line with the magazine. The man 
who steered her knew where the vulnerable spots of 
the steamer were, and he did his work well. When 
the explosion took place the ship trembled all over as 
if by the shock of an earthquake, and seemed to be 
lifted out of the water, and then sunk foremost, heeling 
to port as she went down. 

"Her captain, Pickering, was stunned and some- 
what bruised by the concussion, and the order of the 
day was 'Sauve qui peut.' A boat was despatched to 
the Canandaigua, not far off, and that vessel at once 
responded to the request for help, and succeeded in 
rescuing the greater part of the crew. 

"Strange to say the David was not seen after the 
explosion, and was supposed to have slipped away in 
the confusion; but when the Housatonic was inspected 

[104] 



SUBMARINE VESSELS 

by divers, the torpedo-boat was found sticking in the 
hole she had made, and all her crew were dead in her. 
It was a reckless adventure these men had engaged 
in, and one in which they could scarcely have hoped 
to succeed. They had tried it once before inside the 
harbor, and some of the crew had been blown over- 
board. How cculd they hope to succeed on the out- 
side, where the sea might be rough, when the speed of 
the David was not over five knots, and when they 
might be driven out to sea! Reckless as it might be, 
it was the most sublime patriotism, and showed the 
length to which men could be urged on behalf of a 
cause for which they were willing to give up their lives 
and all they held most dear." 

RECENT SUBMARINES AND SUBMERSIBLES 

After the Civil War several nations interested them- 
selves in the subject of submarines, and during the 
Franco-Prussian war in 1870-71, France attempted 
the construction of such vessels, but without success. 
Yet the possibility of producing these boats was be- 
coming more apparent every year by the improvements 
in electrical motors, gasoline engines, compressed-air 
motors, and the automobile- or fish-torpedo — itself a 
miniature submarine boat. 

In America the progress made in submarine-boat 
construction has been fully as great, if not greater, 
than in any other country. Undoubtedly the foremost 
figure in this progress has been Mr. P. Holland; and 
his efforts and successes are largely responsible for the 

[105] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

present fleet of submarine boats built already, or in 
the process of construction, as well as for those of sev- 
eral foreign countries. Indeed, in the matter of sub- 
marine inventions, only one country can be considered 
as rivaling America, that nation being France, whose 
enthusiasm for submarine navigation has been much 
greater than that of any other nation, although in the 
matter of results she has not outstripped the United 
States. 

Mr. Holland's first submarine boat was built in 
1875. It was called a "diving canoe," being only six- 
teen feet in length and wide enough to hold one man 
clothed in a diving-suit. Four years later, however, 
Holland built a larger boat called the Holland No. 3 
constructed along similar lines to the most recent sub- 
marines. This was the first buoyant submarine to be 
steered up and down by horizontal rudders alone, and 
may be said to mark an epoch in submarine naviga- 
tion. But the No. 3 had many defects, and Mr. Hol- 
land continued to build and improve new boats, until 
finally his ninth boat, which is the one familiarly known 
as the Holland, represented a practical form of sub- 
marine vessel. This boat was 53 feet 10 inches long, 
10 feet 3 inches in diameter, had a displacement of 75 
tons, and carried 10 tons of water ballast. The gaso- 
line engine which it used when running at the surface 
propelled the boat at the rate of seven knots an hour, 
and it could travel a distance of fifteen hundred miles 
at this rate of speed with the amount of fuel carried. 
When submerged it could run a distance of about fifty 
knots without coming to the surface. 

[106] 



SUBMARINE VESSELS 

In diving, the Holland type of boat takes in suffi- 
cient water ballast to lower it to the surface of the 
water. The horizontal rudders are then brought into 
use causing it to descend to the desired depth, and 
keeping it at an approximately uniform distance from 
the surface while running submerged. By this arrange- 
ment the boat can dive very quickly, requiring only a 
matter of eight or ten seconds for reaching a depth of 
thirty feet. Record plunges have been made in less 
time than this. 

The armament of the Holland boat was originally 
designed to consist of three tubes, two of which were 
for throwing aerial torpedoes and shells, and the third 
for discharging Whitehead torpedoes. One of these 
aerial guns was placed in the bow, and one in the 
stern; but later the stern tube was abandoned. The 
bow gun was designed to discharge projectiles a dis- 
tance of about one mile, such projectiles weighing 
something over two hundred pounds and carrying one 
hundred pounds of gun-cotton. The tube for dis- 
charging the Whitehead torpedo was practically the 
same as the submerged tubes in use at present on 
battle-ships. 

Although this Holland is now the type of diving boat 
most familiar to the majority of people, and the one 
in use in several navies, it should not be understood 
that the Holland boats were the only successful sub- 
marines constructed up to this time. France and Rus- 
sia had produced successful diving boats; and in 
America those invented by Simon Lake, some of which 
are used for wrecking and salvage work as well as for 

[107] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

war purposes, have proved quite as practical as the 
Hollands. In recent tests of these two types by the 
United States Government the Holland boats showed 
themselves to be slightly superior to the Lake boats in 
certain particulars, but the margin of superiority was 
a very narrow one. 

The boats of the " Octopus" type are strictly speak- 
ing " diving boats,'' while the Lake boats are of the 
"even-keel" type. These terms refer to the method 
of submergence, the diving boats changing their hori- 
zontal trim when submerging, while the even-keel 
boats retain their horizontal trim, or nearly so. 

The Lake boats have some features not usually em- 
bodied in other submarines, since some of the boats 
are designed for purposes other than warfare. Thus, 
they are equipped with wheels, or buffers, on which 
they can roll along the bottom of the ocean or bay. In 
the bow is an air-tight compartment with an opening 
in the bottom through which a diver can emerge and 
work on wreckage, or laying and disconnecting mines. 
These boats have also a safety device in the form of a 
detachable keel weighing several tons. In case of acci- 
dent, when it might otherwise be impossible to rise to 
the surface, this keel can be detached simply by pull- 
ing a lever, thus giving the boat sufficient buoyancy to 
rise to the surface. This particular feature of the de- 
tachable keel is not peculiar to the Lake boats alone, 
some of the foreign submarines using a similar arrange- 
ment as a safeguard. 

Technically speaking the name "submarine" is now 
used only as applying to those boats that are operated 

[108] 



SUBMARINE VESSELS 

solely by electric power, have little buoyancy, and do 
very little running at the surface. The term " submer- 
sible" is applied to a submarine boat, actuated by elec- 
tricity while submerged, but using gasoline motors for 
motive power while running at the surface. These 
gasoline engines are used at the same time for charg- 
ing the storage batteries; so that the submersible is a 
much more practical boat than the submarine, and at 
the same time is quite as good a diver. Indeed, al- 
though many naval writers are very careful to make 
a distinction in the use of these terms, there seems little 
need of doing so, since only one type of boat — the 
submersible — is now considered practical. But as the 
word submarine is the older and more popular, it is 
used here to cover both classes except in specific cases. 

For several years there were two classes of sub- 
marines under observation — those possessing no float- 
ability when submerged, and those having some 
reserve buoyancy. The advantage claimed for the no- 
floatability class of boats is that, having no buoyancy, 
they are kept more easily at a certain depth below the 
surface of the water instead of tending to come to the 
surface constantly as in the case of boats of the other 
type. 

But in actual practice the theoretical possibilities of 
such boats have not come up to the expectations of 
their advocates. For keeping the boat at a uniform 
depth, the most universally accepted method is by the 
use of horizontal rudders. The fact that the vertical 
direction of a boat may be controlled by horizontal 
rudders, when her buoyancy is small, has long since 

[109] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

been established in submarine navigation; and the 
simplicity of this method naturally helps its popularity. 
If there were no shifting of weight in a submarine, or 
no wave disturbance, it would not be difficult to set 
the rudders at such an angle that the boat would travel 
for long distances at an approximately uniform sub- 
mergence, the depth of submergence being indicated 
by gauges acted upon by the water pressure on the 
surface of the boat. And in actual practice it is possi- 
ble to do this at the present time, part of the problem 
having been solved by automatic and other devices. 

It should be remembered that many things enter 
into the disturbance of the submarine's equilibrium. 
The movement of a member of the crew from one 
point to another shifts the ballast; a certain amount 
of leakage of water cannot be avoided, and the sudden 
discharge of a torpedo weighing several hundred pounds 
from her bow tends to bring the boat quickly to the 
surface if this lost weight is not compensated for quickly. 
By various ingenious devices all these difficulties have 
been practically overcome, most of them automatically. 

But the great unsolved problem of submarine navi- 
gation — practically the only one that now opposes a 
question mark to its great utility in warfare — is that of 
steering with certainty of direction when submerged. 
Once the submarine is under water it is in utter dark- 
ness as far as seeing to steer is concerned; and what 
adds to the difficulty is the fact that the compass can- 
not be relied upon, because of the surrounding elec- 
trical apparatus. It would be possible, perhaps, to 
construct a powerful electric lamp to throw a light 

[no] 



SUBMARINE VESSELS 

some distance ahead of the boat, but this would defeat 
the primary object of submarine attack, as such a 
light would be seen by an enemy. 

In still water, when the boat is running within a dis- 
tance of ten or fifteen feet of the surface, it is possible 
to steer with great precision by the use of an optical 
tube or " periscope." This periscope is a straight, 
hollow tube, connected with the steering compartment 
in the submarine, and protruding above the water. In 
the upper end are a mirror and lenses so arranged 
that the surrounding objects are reflected downward 
through the tube, and show on a screen, or some other 
device, so that the helmsman sees things of exactly the 
same size that they would appear to the naked eye. 
The periscope is also fitted with a telescope attachment 
which magnifies objects like the binoculars used in 
surface navigation. On some recent submarines there 
are two periscopes, a movable one for use of the com- 
manding officer, and one that looks straight ahead for 
the helmsman's use. 

In still water the periscope works admirably, but it 
is seriously interfered with even by small waves. It is 
so small and inconspicuous, however, that it might 
enable a submarine to creep within torpedo range even 
in daylight, and launch the torpedo with accuracy, as 
was proved in 1908 when a fleet of submarines actually 
accomplished this feat in an experimental test. 

PRESENT STATUS OF SUBMARINE BOATS 

To most people, one of the most surprising things in 
the Russo-Japanese war was the fact that submarine 

[in] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

boats played no part in it whatever. There is only one 
possible conclusion to be drawn from this: the day of 
the submarine as a determining factor in naval battles 
on the high seas had not arrived. 

The reason for the surprise of the generality of peo- 
ple in finding the submarine was not as yet an entirely 
practical war engine, is due to the enthusiastic misrep- 
resentations of the daily press and magazines, whose 
readers have been led to infer that the modern sub- 
marine boat is so far perfected that it can do things 
under water almost as well as boats on the surface. 
Nothing is farther from the truth. Under ideal (and 
consequently unusual) conditions, the submarines, and 
submersibles, have done, and can do, some remarkable 
things, such as staying submerged for hours, diving to 
a depth of two hundred feet, and running long dis- 
tances. But these are only the first requisites of the 
under- water righting boat — simply the " creeping stage" 
of development. The common impression that the 
submarine boat, such as the ones of the Holland and 
Lake types, can go cruising about, fish-like, for hours, 
watching for its prey in some mysterious manner with- 
out coming near the surface, is a dream not yet realized. 

If one will pause to consider that light is necessary 
to sight and that one hundred feet of sea water makes 
almost as efficient an obstacle to vision as a stone wall, 
it will be easy to understand why the submarine is still 
struggling with difficulties that oppose its perfection. 
The fanciful illustration seen so often of a submarine 
diving hundreds of feet deep in the water, swimming 
about and finally coming up under the keel of a battle 

[112] 



SUBMARINE VESSELS 

ship and destroying it, are as yet the creations of vivid 
imaginations. For submarine marksmen, like all others, 
require a fairly clear view of the target — even such a 
huge target as a battle-ship — to direct their shots with 
any degree of certainty. 

The greatest problem now confronting the sub- 
marine navigator, therefore, is that of seeing without 
being seen. At night, and at long ranges, this is not 
difficult, as the little conning-tower, or tiny periscope 
tube protruding above the waves, is not easily detected 
even by strong searchlights, sharp eyes, and marine 
glasses. But long ranges are of little use to the sub- 
marine; and there is always another difficulty — the 
leviathan battle-ship does not lie still waiting to be 
stabbed by its sword-fish enemy, but keeps moving 
about, twisting and turning, at a rate of from fourteen 
to eighteen knots an hour, while the submarine can 
only make about eleven knots when submerged. In a 
stern chase, therefore, the submarine is one of the most 
harmless of sea-monsters, in the open ocean. For 
harbor work, however, the case is different. In some 
recent tests the submarine boats made eighty per cent, 
in hits while attacking moving vessels in a harbor at 
night — a far higher percentage than is usually made by 
surface torpedo boats under the same circumstances. 

At present the best solution of the problem of steer^ 
ing the partly submerged submarine is offered by the 
use of a conning-tower elevated five or six feet above 
the body of the submarine, which can be kept just 
above the waves, and present an inconspicuous target. 
The early Holland boats did not have this, although 

vol. vii. — 8 [113] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

the American Lake boats have had it from the first; 
but at the present time all boats are being so made. 
At first these towers were made circular in form; but 
it was found that towers of this shape made sufficient 
splash in passing through the water to attract atten- 
tion at a considerable distance on a still night. This 
shape was abandoned, therefore, and a boat-shaped 
one adopted. 

With such a noiseless conning-tower the submersible 
can cruise about on foggy nights, or when the waves are 
just high enough to make a disturbance on the sur- 
face, running with the top of the conning-tower open 
so as to secure good ventilation as long as possible, 
until the enemy is nearly within striking distance. As 
the target is approached the conning-tower must be 
closed, the protruding top sunk lower and lower in the 
water, and finally completely submerged, nothing ap- 
pearing at the surface but the periscope tube just above 
the waves. With the aid of this instrument the target 
may still be seen distinctly, but the arc of vision is 
limited, and guessing the distance or rate of speed of 
the target is very difficult. Nevertheless, by estimating 
the distance before submerging, and knowing the rate 
of speed of his little craft, the submarine gunner may 
still get his range and find his target. If the waves are 
at all high, this is very difficult, as the water, slopping 
over the periscope, obscures the vision for several sec- 
onds at a time and is very distracting. But some ex- 
periments carried on during the summer of 1908 show 
that, even in broad daylight, it is no easy matter for a 
battle-ship to detect the approach of submarines until 

[114] 



SUBMARINE VESSELS 

well within torpedo range, even when an attack is 
expected. 

In these experiments the United States cruiser 
" Yankee" in Buzzard's Bay was attacked by five sub- 
marines of the most recent type. The "Yankee" re- 
mained stationary expecting the attack, but to offset 
this disadvantage the crew was fully aware of the 
exact time that the attack was to be made. Indeed the 
officers of the cruiser had watched the submarines 
steam away until they disappeared. When twenty 
miles from the " Yankee" the five submarines sub- 
merged and headed for the cruiser, making observations 
at intervals by means of the periscope. 

The day was perfectly clear, and all on board the 
"Yankee" were keenly watching for the expected sub- 
marines. Yet the first intimation they had of the prox- 
imity of the diving boats was the striking of five tor- 
pedoes against the cruiser's hull. Each submarine had 
scored a bull's-eye. Not content with this success, the 
submarines repeated the attack from a nearer point, 
again scoring five hits before their presence was detected. 

One great obstacle to successful submarine naviga- 
tion on an extended scale is the difficulty of keeping a 
supply of air not only for the use of the crew, but for 
the engines. Any really powerful engine, either steam 
or gas, consumes an enormous amount of air. This is 
not true, of course, of the storage batteries which fur- 
nish the power for running while submerged, but 
these, at best, are but feeble generators of energy, al- 
though Edison's recent improvements may materially 
improve their power. If gasoline engines could be 

[us] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

used during submergence a far greater speed would be 
acquired; but this is out of the question, as such en- 
gines would consume the air supply of the little boat 
far too rapidly. The compromise, now adopted uni- 
versally, is to use gasoline motors while running at the 
surface or partly submerged, when the conning-tower 
is open, utilizing part of their energy meanwhile to 
charge the storage batteries. 

It is evident, therefore, that no great speed can be 
expected of the submarine in its present state; and in 
point of fact the largest type is able to develop only 
about ten or eleven knots when submerged, and fifteen 
while at the surface — far below the speed of any other 
type of war vessel. But the experimental attacks upon 
the "Yankee" prove that they are dangerous fighting 
craft, and a recent voyage by a flotilla of Italian sub- 
mersibles shows that such boats are no longer harbor- 
locked vessels. In 1908 the Italian flotilla in question 
made a voyage from Venice to Spezia, a distance of 
thirteen hundred miles, without assistance from auxil- 
iary boats. About the same time a British submarine 
flotilla, on a three-hundred mile trip, remained sub- 
merged for forty consecutive hours. The depth of the 
submergence in this case was only a few feet, but great 
depths may be reached with relative safety. In one 
test a Lake boat carrying her crew sank to a depth of 
one hundred and thirty-eight feet, returning to the sur- 
face in a few minutes. At another time the " Octo- 
pus/ ' without her crew, was lowered to a depth of 
two hundred and five feet, sustaining a pressure of 
fifteen thousand tons, without injury. 

[n6] 





.*t 






- 

. . V 

• f 




'■ 


<f 


.1 ■ 




*2 




■ I 





SUBMARINE VESSELS 

Such performances as these are thought-provoca- 
tive, to say the least. Submarine boats that can hit the 
target without being detected, go on cruises unattended 
for more than a thousand miles, and remain submerged 
for more than a day and a half, must be classed as 
efficient engines of warfare. 

Since the submersible is designed to spend most of 
its time on the surface of the water like an ordinary 
boat, it must have considerable buoyancy, but it must 
also have some means of getting rid of this buoyancy 
quickly when submergence is necessary. The sub- 
marine proper has only from five to eight per cent, 
buoyancy, while some of the submersibles have twenty- 
five per cent, or more. With such boats of the ordi- 
nary size some fifty tons of water must be admitted 
before bringing them to a condition in which they can 
be submerged ; but this can be done very quickly. One 
of the submarines of the U. S. fleet in an actual test 
filled her ballast tanks and dived to a depth of twenty 
feet in four minutes and twenty seconds. 

It is not impossible that the recent triumphs in aerial 
navigation may have an important bearing on the use 
of submarines in future wars. It is well known that 
large objects when submerged even to a considerable 
depth are discernible from a height in the air directly 
above them. It is quite possible, therefore, that swift 
aeroplanes circling about a fleet of war vessels might be 
able to detect submarine boats when these boats were 
near enough the surface to use their periscopes. If so 
it might be possible for the aeroplanes to drop torpedoes 
upon the submerged boats without danger to them- 

[117] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

selves. Or if the aeroplanes carried no effective weap- 
ons, they could at least act in the capacity of scouts 
and warn their battleship consorts of the presence of 
the submarine. Of course, this would be possible only 
in daylight, the airships giving no protection against 
night attacks. 



[118J 



IV 

THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 

MODERN railroads are the outcome of the in- 
vention of the locomotive; yet the invention 
of the practical locomotive was the outcome 
of iron railroads which had been in existence for half a 
century. These iron railroads were a development 
from wooden predecessors, which were the direct de- 
scendants of the smooth roadways of the Greeks and 
Romans. Indeed it is quite reasonable to suppose that 
the ancients may have been familiar with the use of 
parallel rails with grooved or flanged wheels to fit 
them; but if so there seems to be no definite record of 
the fact, and our knowledge of true railroads goes back 
only to the seventeenth century. 

As early as 1630, it is recorded that a road built of 
parallel rails of wood upon which cars were run was 
used in a coal-mine near Newcastle, England; and 
there is no reason to suppose that this road was a 
novelty at the time. Half a century later there was a 
railroad in operation near the river Tyne which has 
been described by Roger North as being made of "rails 
of timber placed end to end and exactly straight, and in 
two parallel lines to each other. On these rails bulky 
cars were made to run on four rollers fitting the rails, 

[119] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

whereby the carriage was made so easy that one horse 
would draw four or five chaldrons of coal to a load." 

At this time the use of iron rails had not been thought 
of, or at least had not been tried, probably from the 
fact that iron was then very expensive. Even the 
wooden rails in use, and the wheels that ran upon 
them, were of no fixed pattern. Some of these rails 
were in the form of depressed grooves into which an 
ordinary wheel fitted. But these were very unsatis- 
factory because they became filled so easily with dirt 
and other obstructions, and a more common type was 
a rail raised a few inches above the ground like a mold- 
ing, a grooved wheel running on the surface. 

Such rails were short lived, splitting and wearing 
away quickly, and being easily injured by other ve- 
hicles. But they were, on the whole, more satisfactory 
than the depressed rails, and were the type adopted 
when iron rails first came into use, about 1767. Ten 
years later the idea of the single flange was conceived, 
not placed on the wheels of the cars as at present, but 
cast on the rails themselves. These flanges were first 
made on the outside of the rails, and later placed on 
the inside, the wheels of the cars used on such rails 
being of the ordinary pattern with flat tires. 

But, in 1789, William Jessop, of Leicestershire, be- 
gan building cars with wheels having single flanges on 
the inside like modern car wheels, to run upon an ele- 
vated molding-shaped iron rail; and the many points 
of superiority of this type of wheel soon led to its gen- 
eral adoption. So that aside from some minor changes, 
the type of rails and wheels in use at the close of the 

[120] 



THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 

eighteenth century was practically the same as at 
present. 

It is probable that if the first inventors had attempted 
to make locomotives to run upon the railroads then in 
existence they would have been successful many years 
before they were, but the advantages of railroads was 
not as evident then as now. and the inventors' efforts 
were confined to attempts to produce locomotive 
wagons — automobiles — to operate upon any road 
where horses and carts could be used. 

Some of their creations were of the most fanciful 
and impractical design, although quite a number of 
them were " locomotives " in the sense that they could 
be propelled over the ground by their own energy, but 
only at a snail's pace, and by the expenditure of a great 
amount of power. Several inventors tried combining 
the principle of the steamboat and the locomotive in 
the same vehicle, and in 1803 a Philadelphian by the 
name of Evans made a steam dredge and land-wagon 
combined which was fairly successful in both capaci- 
ties of boat and wagon. He called his machine the 
"Oruktor Amphibious," and upon one occasion made 
a trip through the streets of Philadelphia, and then 
plunged into the Schuylkill River and continued his 
journey on the water. But as he was unable to arouse 
anything but curiosity, the financiers refusing to take 
his machine seriously, he finally gave up his attempts 
to solve the problem of steam locomotion. 

The year before this, in 1802, Richard Trevithick, 
in England, had been more successful in his attempts 
at producing a locomotive. He produced a steam loco- 

[121] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

motive that operated on the streets of London and the 
public highways, hauling a wagonload of people. But 
the unevenness of the roads proved disastrous to his 
engine, and as it could make no better time than a 
slow horse, it was soon abandoned. But Trevithick 
had learned from this failure that a good roadbed was 
quite as essential to the success of a locomotive as the 
machine itself, and two years later he produced what 
is usually regarded as the first railway locomotive. This 
was built for the Merthyr-Tydvil Railway in South Wales, 
and on several occasions hauled loads of ten tons of iron 
at a fair rate of speed. It was not considered a success 
financially, however, and was finally abandoned. 

At this time a curious belief had become current 
among the inventors to the effect that if a smooth-sur- 
face rail and a smooth-surface wheel were used, there 
would not be sufficient friction between the two to 
make it possible to haul loads, or more than barely 
move the locomotive itself. Learned mathematicians 
proved conclusively on paper by endless hair-splitting 
calculations that the thing was impossible, — that any 
locomotive strong enough to propel itself along a 
smooth iron rail would be heavy enough to break the 
strongest rail, and smash the roadbed. In the face of 
these arguments the idea of smooth rails and smooth 
wheels was abandoned for the time. Trevithick him- 
self was convinced, and turned his attention to the per- 
fecting of an engine with toothed drive-wheels running 
on a track with rack-rails. But this engine soon jolted 
itself and its track into the junk-heap without doing 
anything to solve the problem of locomotion. 

[122] 



THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 

Shortly after this, a man named Chapman, of New- 
castle, built a road and stretched a chain from one end 
to the other, this chain being arranged to pass around 
a barrel- wheel on the locomotive, which thus pulled 
itself along, just as some of the boats on the Rhine do 
at the present time. But the machinery for operating 
this engine was clumsy and unsatisfactory, and the 
road proved a complete failure. 

Perhaps the most remarkable locomotive ever con- 
ceived and constructed was one built by Brunton, of 
Derbyshire, in 1813. This machine was designed to 
go upon legs like a horse, and was a combination of 
steam wagon and mechanical horse. The wagon part 
of the combination ran upon a track like an ordinary 
car, while the mechanical legs were designed to trot 
behind and "kick the wagon along." "The legs or 
propellers, imitated the legs of a man or the fore-legs 
of a horse, with joints, and when worked by the ma- 
chine alternately lifted and pressed against the ground 
or road, propelling the engine forward, as a man shoves 
a boat ahead by pressing with a pole against the bot- 
tom of a river.' ' This machine was able to travel at a 
rate somewhat slower than that at which a man usually 
walks; and its tractive force was that of four horses. 
But after it had demonstrated its impotency by crawl- 
ing along for a few miles, it terminated its career by 
"blowing up in disgust," killing and injuring several 
by-standers. 

The much disputed point as to whether a smooth- 
wheeled locomotive would be practical on smooth rails 
was not settled until 1 8 1 3 . An inventor named Blackett , 

[123] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

of Wylam, who with his engineer, William Hedley, had 
built several steam locomotives which only managed 
to crawl along the tracks under the most favorable con- 
ditions, wishing to determine if it were the fault of 
locomotives or the system on which they worked that 
accounted for his failures, constructed a car which was 
propelled by six men working levers geared to the 
wheels, like the modern hand-car. 

In this way he determined that there was sufficient 
adhesion between smooth rails and smooth wheels for 
locomotives to haul heavy loads behind them, even on 
grades of considerable incline. The experiments of 
Blackett settled this question beyond the possibility of 
controversy, and removed a very important obstacle 
from the path of future inventors. Among these in- 
ventors was young George Stephenson, who was rapidly 
making a reputation for himself as a practical engineer. 

STEPHENSON SOLVES THE PROBLEM 

Stephenson was born on June 9, 1781, in the small 
colliery village of Wylam, on the river Tyne. His 
parents were extremely poor, and as the boy was sent 
to work as soon as he was large enough to find em- 
ployment of any kind, he was given no education, even 
to the extent of learning the alphabet. _It was only 
after he had spent many years in the colliery, and had 
finally worked himself up from the position of "picker" 
at three pence a day to that of fireman, that he was 
able to spend the necessary time and pennies to acquire 
something of an education. Then he attended a night 

[124] 




GEORGE STEPHENSON 



THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 

school, learned his alphabet, was able to scrawl his 
name at eighteen years of age, and a little later could 
read, write, and do sums in arithmetic. 

But if deficient in letters, there was one field in which 
he had no superior, — that was in the practical hand- 
ling of a steam-engine. His position in the mine gave 
him a chance to study the workings of the engines then 
in use, and at every opportunity, on holidays and after 
working-hours, he was in the habit of dismantling his 
engine, and carefully studying every detail of its con- 
struction. Thus by the time he had reached his ma- 
jority he was a skillful engineer, besides having many 
new ideas that had developed during his examinations 
of the machinery. But besides his knowledge of en- 
gineering, he was an accomplished workman in other 
fields. He was a good shoemaker, watch- and clock- 
repairer, and tailors' cutter, at all of which trades he 
worked at odd times to increase his income. Thus he 
was a veritable jack-of -all-trades ; with the unusual 
qualification, that he was master of one. 

By the time he was twenty-six years old he was hold- 
ing the position of engineer to a coal-mining company, 
and had acquired the confidence of his employers to 
such an extent that he was permitted to build a loco- 
motive for them — a thing that had been his ambition 
for several years. This was in 1807, the same year 
that Robert Fulton demonstrated the possibilities of 
steam navigation. 

In the construction of this engine Stephenson intro- 
duced several novel features of his own inventing, al- 
though on the whole no new principles were involved; 

[125] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

and in practice this engine showed several points of supe- 
riority over its predecessors. It would draw eight loaded 
wagons of thirty tons' weight at the rate of four miles 
an hour on an ascending grade of one in four hundred 
and fifty feet. But it had two very radical defects — it 
would not keep up steam and the noise of the steam- 
pipe exhausting into the open air frightened the horses 
of the neighborhood to such a degree that the author- 
ities ordered the inventor either to stop running his 
engine, or suppress its noise. As an experiment, there- 
fore, Stephenson arranged the exhaust pipes so that 
they opened into the smokestack, where the sound 
would be muffled. But when the engine was now tried 
he found to his surprise that this single expedient had 
solved both difficulties, the exhausting steam causing 
such an improvement in the draught of his furnace 
that double the quantity of steam was generated. This 
discovery helped to simplify later experiments, for the 
difficulty of keeping up steam had been one of the 
great obstacles encountered by the inventors. 

Stephenson's second locomotive was an improve- 
ment over his first in many ways, but it was still far from 
being the practical machine that was to supplant horse- 
power. It could haul heavier loads than teams of 
horses, and was more convenient for certain purposes; 
but it was no more economical. 

As yet the only use to which locomotives had been 
put was that of hauling cars in coal-mines. Indeed, the 
only railroads then constructed were those used in 
mines, the idea of utilizing such roads for passenger 
and freight traffic not having occurred to anyone until 

[126] 



THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 

about 1820. Then the Englishman, Thomas Gray, 
suggested the construction of such a road between 
Liverpool and Manchester, advocating steam as the 
motive power. His idea was looked upon as visionary, 
and as he persisted in his efforts to interest prominent 
people in the scheme, he came to be very generally 
regarded as an enthusiastic but somewhat crack- 
brained fanatic. 

But meanwhile the coal railroads were being ex- 
tended to such lengths that they were assuming the 
proportions of modern railroads. The motive power 
on most of the roads was horses, although here and 
there a traction engine using chain or cable, was em- 
ployed for certain purposes. In 1 8 2 5 , however, Stephen- 
son began the construction of an improved locomotive, 
this time at his own modest establishment; and a 
little later this engine made the trial that really demon- 
strated the possibilities of steam locomotion, although 
this was not universally recognized until the success of 
the Rocket a few years later. 

A great deal of excitement and speculation arose 
throughout the country when the trial day approached. 
Great crowds assembled from every direction to wit- 
ness the trial; some, more sanguine, came to witness 
the success, but far the greater portion came to see the 
bubble burst. The proceedings began at Busselton in- 
cline, where the stationary engine drew a train up the 
incline on one side and let it down on the other. The 
wagons were then loaded. 

"At the foot of this plane a locomotive, driven by 
Mr. Stephenson himself, was attached to the train. It 

[127] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

consisted of six wagons loaded with coal and flour, 
next a passenger coach (the first ever run upon a rail- 
road) filled with the directors and their friends, then 
twenty wagons fitted up with temporary seats for pas- 
sengers, and lastly came six wagons loaded with coal, 
making in all twenty-eight vehicles. The word being 
given that all was ready, the engine began to move, 
gradually at first, but afterward, in part of the road, 
attaining a speed of twelve miles an hour. At that 
time the number of passengers amounted to four hun- 
dred and fifty, which would, with the remainder of the 
load, amount to upwards of ninety tons. The train 
arrived at Darlington, eight and three-quarter miles, in 
sixty-five minutes. Here it was stopped and a fresh 
supply of water obtained, the six coal-cars for Darling- 
ton detached, and the word given to go ahead. The 
engine started, and arrived at Stockton, twelve miles, 
in three hours and seven minutes including stoppages. 
By the time the train reached Stockton the number of 
passengers amounted to over six hundred." 

From this description it will be seen that the coal 
roads had been extended to form interurban railways. 
In this connection it is interesting to note the increase 
of traffic that developed on this particular road in the 
years immediately following the invention of the prac- 
tical locomotive. When the road was projected it was 
estimated that its maximum carrying capacity would 
not exceed 10,000 tons of coal yearly. A few years 
later, when locomotives had come into use, the regular 
yearly carriage amounted to 500,000 tons. 

The passenger coach on this first train, the first of 
[128] 



THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 

its kind ever constructed for the special purpose of 
carrying passengers, was remarkable for its simplicity. 
One writer described it as "a modest and uncouth- 
looking affair, made more for strength than for beauty. 
A row of seats ran along each side of the interior, and 
a long table was fixed in the centre, the access being 
by the doorway behind, like an omnibus. This vehicle 
was named the Experiment, and was the only carriage 
for passengers upon the road for some time." 

About this time the now famous Liverpool and Man- 
chester Railway was projected. It was elaborately 
planned and carried out at an enormous expense. The 
construction of the road-bed was given special atten- 
tion, although as yet the question of what motive power 
should be used had not been decided. Most of the 
directors and engineers favored the use of horses. The 
few that were in favor of steam did not favor the use of 
locomotives, but a system that would now be called a 
relay-cable system. According to this plan the road 
of about thirty miles was to be divided into nineteen 
sections, over each of which a stationary steam-engine 
was to work a chain or cable. But when the board of 
engineers appointed to investigate the possibilities of 
this system reported on the matter, it was found that 
there were several vital defects in such a system. For 
example, should any one of the sections of cable break 
or become inoperative, the entire line would have to 
stand idle; and furthermore, the cost of building and 
maintaining these nineteen stations offered serious 
financial obstacles. 

It is an interesting fact that until the report of this 
vol. vii. — 9 [ 129] 



T^HE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

board was made "not a single professional man of 
eminence could be found who preferred the locomo- 
tive over the fixed engine, George Stephenson only 
excepted." But with the glaring defects of the cable 
road, and the enormous cost of maintenance impressed 
upon the directors, the idea of the locomotive became 
at once more attractive, and the performance of Ste- 
phenson's locomotive was more carefully investigated. 
The upshot of these investigations was the offer of a 
prize of £500 for a locomotive that, on a certain day 
would perform certain duties named under the eight 
following headings: — 

1. The engine must effectually consume its own 
smoke. 

2. The engine, if of six tons' weight, must be able 
to draw, day by day, twenty tons' weight, including the 
tender, and water-tank, at ten miles an hour, with a 
pressure of steam upon the boiler not exceeding fifty 
pounds to the square inch. 

3. The boiler must have two safety-valves, neither 
of which must be fastened down, and one of them 
completely out of the control of the engineer. 

4. The engine and boiler must be supported upon 
springs and rest on six wheels, the height of the whole 
not exceeding fifteen feet to the top of the chimney. 

5. The engine with water must not weigh more 
than six tons, but an engine of less weight would be 
preferred although drawing a proportionately less load 
behind it ; if of only four and one-half tons it might be 
put on four wheels. 

6. A mercurial gauge must be affixed to the machine, 

[i3°] 



THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 

showing the steam pressure about forty-five pounds to 
the square inch. 

7. The engine must be delivered, complete and 
ready for trial, at the Liverpool end of the railway, 
not later than October 1, 1829. 

8. The price of the engine must not exceed £550. 

What strikes one as most peculiar in this set of re- 
quirements and specifications is the first clause — that 
of the engine consuming its own smoke; for even at 
the present time this is considered a difficult problem. 
But this was not so considered by the inventors of that 
time, their great stumbling-block being the high speed 
required. Ten miles an hour struck most of them as 
absurd and out of the question. 

One eminent person, who was to become later one 
of England's leading engineers, stated publicly that 
"if it proved to be possible to make a locomotive go 
ten miles an hour, he would undertake to eat a stewed 
engine- wheel for his breakfast." It is not recorded 
whether or not this terrible threat was carried out. 

But there was more than one engineer and engine- 
builder who took a more sanguine view of the prize 
offer. The firm of Braithwait & Ericsson signified its 
intention of competing, with a locomotive that they 
named the Novelty. Another firm entered the contest 
with an engine called the Sans-pareil; still another 
firm entered the Perseverance) and George Stephenson 
was on hand with the now-famous Rocket. 

In the series of trials that followed, the Sans-pareil 
and the Perseverance were so clearly outclassed by 
the other two competing locomotives that they need 

[131] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

not be considered here; but the Novelty and the 
Rocket were close competitors. The Novelty, indeed, 
made such a good showing, and afterwards proved to 
be such a good locomotive, that although it lost the 
contest, many competent judges have since regarded 
it as equal to the Rocket, if not superior, in principle. 
Be that as it may, later experiments proved conclu- 
sively that the cause of failure on the final day of the 
prize contest was due to defects in workmanship rather 
than to defective principle of construction. 

The Novelty has been described as having the ap- 
pearance of "a milk-can set in the rear end of a wagon, 
with a little smokestack in front looking like a high 
dashboard." It carried its supply of fuel and water 
in the " wagon-box'' part of the engine frame, in front 
of the boiler, so that it required no tender. On its 
first trial, running without any load, it reached a speed 
of twenty-four miles an hour — a speed more than 
double the "stewed engine-wheel" limit. But at each 
subsequent trial, although it hauled loads for short 
distances, some part of its machinery became dis- 
abled, so that it was necessarily regarded as inferior 
to its more stable rival, the Rocket. 

The Sans-pareil was considerably over the maxi- 
mum weight and according to a strict interpretation 
of the stipulations, should not have been allowed to 
contest; but although this question of over- weight 
was waived by the judges, and the engine given a fair 
trial, it showed such a capacity for consuming fuel 
without any corresponding ability to perform work, 
that it was decided inferior to the Novelty and the 

[132] 



jO^.ld ^ 




b =^U.^i — . - ?-. 




BuJL^jBjL^i^'j 






> .. . .... 






cugnot's traction engine and the "novelty" locomotive. 

These vehicles are shown together here because of their similarity of plan of 
construction. Cugnot's original engine (upper figure) was built in France in 1769. 
The vehicle shown above was made in 1770, after Cugnot's designs, for the French 
Government. It was intended for the transportation of artillery, and the specifi- 
cations called for a carrying capacity of about 4^ tons and a speed of 2 1 miles per 
hour on level ground. Cugnot's original engine had attained this speed on a com- 
mon road while carrying four persons; notwithstanding which fact the machine 
above shown was for some reason never given a trial. It is now preserved in the 
Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, in Paris. It is particularly noteworthy that the 
successful road engine of Cugnot was constructed in 1769, the year in which James 
Watt took out the first patents on his steam engine. Just 60 years elapsed before 
Stephenson's "Rocket" convinced the world of the feasibility of transportation by 
steam-power. 

The locomotive shown in the lower figure competed in the famous tests of 1829 
against the "Rocket" and the "Sans Pareil." It excited much interest, attaining a 
speed of almost 32 miles per hour when running light, but owing to breakdowns 
was unable to fulfill the required tests and was therefore withdrawn from the com- 
petition. It was afterwards used commercially. 



THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 

Rocket. The Perseverance was clearly outclassed by 
all the other competing engines, as its maximum speed 
was only five or six miles an hour. 

The most consistent performer, and the final prize- 
winner, as everyone knows, was Stephenson's Rocket, 
the direct ancestor of all modern locomotives. The 
boiler of this locomotive was horizontal, as in modern 
locomotives, cylindrical, and had flat ends. It was 
six feet in length and a little over three feet in diame- 
ter. The upper half of the boiler was used as a reser- 
voir for steam, the lower half being filled with water 
and having copper pipes running through it. The 
fire-box, two feet wide and three feet high, was placed 
immediately behind the boiler. Just above this, and 
on each side, were the cylinders, two in number, act- 
ing obliquely downward on the two front wheels of 
the engine, the piston-rod connecting with the driver 
by a bar pinned to the outside of the wheel, as in mod- 
ern American locomotives. 

The engine with its load of water weighed a trifle 
over four tons — seemingly little more than a toy-loco- 
motive, as compared with the modern monsters more 
than thirty times that weight. But for its size the little 
Rocket was a marvelous performer, even as judged by 
recent standards. On the first day of the contests over 
the two miles of trial tracks, it covered twelve miles in 
considerably less than an hour, shuttling back and 
forth over the road. The next day, as none of the 
other engines was in condition to exhibit, Stephenson 
offered to satisfy the curiosity of the great crowd that 
had gathered — a crowd that contained representatives 

[i33l 



\ 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

from all over the world — by an unofficial trial of the 
Rocket. He coupled the little engine to a car, loaded 
on thirty-six passengers, and took them for a spin over 
the road at the rate of from twenty-six to thirty miles 
an hour. 

The following day some of the competing locomo- 
tives were still unable to exhibit, and again the Rocket 
was given a semi-official trial. Hauling a car loaded 
with thirteen tons' weight, it ran back and forth over 
the two-mile road, covering thirty-five miles in one 
hour and forty-eight minutes including stoppages. The 
maximum velocity attained was about twenty-nine 
miles an hour. As this performance was duplicated 
on the day of the official trial, the Rocket was declared 
the winner, and awarded the prize. 

Naturally there were many minor defects in the con- 
struction of this first locomotive, although most of 
them were too trivial and unimportant to affect the 
excellence of the machine as a whole. But it had one 
serious defect: the inclination of the cylinders caused 
the entire machine to rise and fall on its springs at 
every double stroke, producing great unsteadiness 
when running at any considerable speed. This was 
corrected a few months later by the suggestion of 
Timothy Hackworth, who drew plans for a locomo- 
tive having horizontal cylinders to be used on the 
Stockton & Darlington Railway. His plans were sub- 
mitted to Stephenson, who constructed an engine from 
them called the Globe, which differed from the Rocket 
in having the cylinders not only horizontal, but placed 
on the inside of the wheels. A little later Stephenson 

[134] 




THE FAMOUS LOCOMOTIVES "ROCKET' AND 



"SANS PAR ELL." 



Stevenson's celebrated "Rocket" is known to everyone as the winner of the competi- 
tion for the prize of 500 pounds offered in 1829 by the Directors of the Liverpool and Man- 
chester Railway. The "Sans Pareil," which, like the "Rocket," is still preserved at the 
South Kensington Museum in London, competed unsuccessfully for the prize. Though 
not equal to the "Rocket" it was in many respects a well-made locomotive. It was pur- 
chased by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company and saw many years of active 
service. 



THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 

built the Planet on much the same lines as the Globe, 
and this engine became the model for engine builders 
the world over. It is an interesting fact that American 
engineers adopted, and still cling to, Stephenson's 
original plan of having the cylinders act on rods at- 
tached to the outside of the wheels as in the Rocket, 
while English engineers have always built their loco- 
motives with the cylinders on the inside, as arranged 
on the Planet. 

Since the time of the Planet the general shape and 
arrangement of most locomotives has remained un- 
changed. In America the inclemencies of the climate 
compelled the invention of the cab; and it was here 
also that the bell, whistle, pilot, and sand-box were 
first introduced. But by 1850 the present type of loco- 
motive had been produced; and although constant 
modifications are being introduced, the general ap- 
pearance of the locomotive remains the same, the dif- 
ference being mostly in the bulk. 

IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCOMOTIVES IN RECENT YEARS 

During the closing years of the nineteenth century 
the general improvements in the rolling-stock of rail- 
roads, and the constantly increasing demand for faster 
passenger service, stimulated manufacturers to attempt 
numerous improvements as well as many changes in 
the size of the more recent types of locomotives. In a 
general way these changes may be summarized as fol- 
lows : A great increase in the size and weight, with in- 
creased speed and tractive power; the use of larger 

[135] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

boilers with thicker shells; the substitution of steel for 
cast-iron in certain parts of the locomotive, thereby 
greatly increasing the strength; and finally, the econ- 
omizing of steam by compounding. 

There is no way of determining the exact amount 
of increase in the weight of engines during the last dec- 
ade, but the figures of some of the great manufactur- 
ing establishments will give a fair idea of this increase 
in a general way. In one of these establishments the 
average weight of a locomotive turned out ten years 
ago was 92,000 pounds for the engine alone, without 
the tender. At the present time the engines being 
manufactured by the same firm average 129,000 pounds, 
an increase of 37,000 pounds, or something over forty 
per cent. This average weight, however, gives but 
an inadequate conception of the size of the largest 
locomotives now being manufactured. The "hundred- 
ton" engine has become a commonplace. In 1909 a 
locomotive weighing, with its tenders, 300 tons was 
manufactured for passenger traffic on the Santa Fe 
lines. 

In America there seems to be no limit to the sizes 
that may be reached ; or at least up to the present time 
this limit has not been attained. In England and sev- 
eral of the Continental countries a great difficulty has 
been found to exist in the unlimited size of locomotives, 
in the fact that the bridges and tunnels of these rail- 
roads are, almost without exception, so low that any 
very great vertical increase in the size of the engine is 
out of the question without reconstructing many miles 
of bridges and tunnels at an enormous cost. 

[136] 



THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 

The increased demand for greater speed has also 
caused a marked increase in the amount of steam pres- 
sure per square inch in the boilers. In 1870 the aver- 
age was about 130 pounds; by 1890 this had been in- 
creased to about 160 pounds; while at the present 
time steam is used frequently at a pressure of 225 
pounds. Naturally this increase in pressure compels 
the use of heavier steel boiler plates. In 1890 the usual 
thickness of the steel sheets was one-half inch; but at 
the present time it is no unusual thing to use plates 
seven-eighths of an inch in thickness. 

But probably the most important improvement in 
locomotive construction in recent years is the intro- 
duction of the compounding principle in the use of 
steam — a system whereby practically the entire energy 
of the steam is utilized, instead of a considerable por- 
tion of it being a dead loss, as in the older type of 
engine. As every one knows, the passage of the steam 
through a single cylinder of an engine does not ex- 
haust its entire energy. In the compounding system 
this exhausted steam is made to pass through one or 
more cylinders after coming from the first, the energy 
of all these cylinders being utilized for the production 
of power. 

The application of this principle of compounding is 
not new even in the field of locomotive construction. 
As early as 1846 patents for a compound locomotive 
were taken out in the United States, and such an en- 
gine built in 1867; but it is only since 1890 that com- 
pound locomotives have become popular in this coun- 
try. In these compound locomotives the two cylinders 

[137] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

are of unequal diameter, so proportioned a that the 
steam at high pressure in the smaller cylinder exerts 
upon the piston approximately the same force that is 
exerted by steam at a lower pressure in the larger 
cylinder. Steam is admitted first into the smaller 
cylinder, where it expends a portion of its initial energy, 
and then passes into the larger cylinder, where it per- 
forms an equal amount of work by exerting a dimin- 
ished pressure upon a larger surface. This is the prin- 
ciple of compounding, the relative sizes and positions 
of the cylinders being varied according to the condi- 
tions to be met by the engine, or the ideas of the de- 
signer or builder, or of the purchaser. While in the 
marine and stationary engine the compound principle 
has been carried with success and economy to three 
and four stages of expansion in the use of steam, it has 
not been found practicable to go beyond two stages in 
compound locomotives." 

In a pamphlet issued recently by one of the leading 
locomotive works of the country, some points of in- 
terest concerning the compound locomotive were stated 
concisely as follows : 

"In stationary-engine practice the chief measure of 
the boiler efficiency is the economical consumption of 
coal. In most stationary engines the boilers are fired 
independently, and the draft is formed from causes 
entirely separate and beyond the control of the escape 
of steam from the cylinders. Hence any economy 
shown by the boilers must of necessity be separate and 
distinct from that which may be effected by the engine 
itself. In a locomotive, however, the amount of work 

[138] 



THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 

depends entirely upon the weight on the driving wheels, 
the cylinder dimensions being proportioned to this 
weight, and, whether the locomotive is compound or 
single expansion, no larger boiler can be provided, 
after allowing for the wheels, frame and mechanism, 
than the total limit of weight permits. The heating 
surface and grate areas in both compound and single- 
expansion locomotives of the same class are practically 
the same, and the evaporative efficiency of both loco- 
motives is chiefly determined by the action of the ex- 
haust, which must be of sufficient intensity in both 
cases to generate the amount of steam necessary for 
utilizing to the best advantage the weight on the driv- 
ing wheels. This is a feature that does not appear in 
any stationary engine, so that the compound locomo- 
tive cannot be judged by stationary standards, and the 
only true comparison to be made is between locomo- 
tives of similar construction and weight, equipped in 
one case with compound and in the other with single- 
expansion cylinders. 

"No locomotive, compound or single-expansion, will 
haul more than its adhesion will allow. The weight 
on driving wheels is the limiting factor in the problem 
which confronts the locomotive engineer. Power can, 
of course, be increased by building a larger engine and 
augmenting this weight but in the present construction 
of tracks and bridges the limit of driving wheel load 
has almost been reached. Hence in modern locomo- 
tive practice the goal before the designer and engineer 
is to obtain maximum efficiency for the minimum 
weight admissible. 

[ J 39] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

"It is not claimed for compound locomotives that a 
heavier train can be hauled at a given speed than with 
a single-expansion locomotive of similar weight and 
class; but the compound will, at very slow speed, on 
heavy grades, keep a train moving where a single-ex- 
pansion will slip and stall. This is due to the pressure 
on the crank-pins of the compound being more uni- 
form throughout the stroke than in the case of the 
single-expansion locomotive, and also to the fact that, 
when needed, live steam can be admitted to the low- 
pressure cylinders." 

Of course, the principal reason for compounding the 
locomotive is to economize steam, and this is unques- 
tionably accomplished; but nevertheless the compara- 
tive economy of compound and single-expansion loco- 
motives was for some time a mooted question. Nu- 
merous tests have been made with these two classes of 
engines, and the widest ranges of differences were 
shown in many instances. In some cases the com- 
pounds seem to show a saving of some forty per cent, 
in fuel; but this is by no means a determinative factor 
in the daily use of an engine. It is found that repairs 
on the compound are more difficult to make, and con- 
sequently more expensive than on the single-expansion 
engines ; but on the whole it is very generally conceded 
that the compound saves its owners from ten to twenty- 
five per cent, over the older type. 

The rapid increase of the size, and consequent coal- 
consuming capacity, of the modern locomotive has 
added another problem to engineering — that of keep- 
ing the yawning maw of the fire-box supplied with coal. 

[140] 



THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 

There is a limit to the amount of work that the fire- 
man can do, and the great engines in use at present 
tax even the strongest fireman to the utmost. If the 
size or speed of locomotives is increased very mate- 
rially in the future it will be necessary to have two 
men, instead of one, as firemen, or to use mechanical 
stokers, or to find some other kind of fuel. In point 
of fact the mechanical stoker has been recently tried 
with success, and this will probably help in solving 
the problem. But there is also the strong probability 
that the use of liquid fuel will become more and more 
popular. At the present time many locomotives in the 
West and Southwest, as well as in Europe and in Asia, 
have been equipped with burners for the consumption 
of crude petroleum. No modification in the construc- 
tion of the locomotive is required for this change of 
fuel except some slight alteration in the arrangement 
of the brickwork of the fire-box, and the introduction 
of the burners. These, however, are simple arrange- 
ments that throw into the fire-box, a spray of steam 
and vaporized oil, which burns freely and generates 
an intense and steady heat. With this kind of fuel the 
fireman need not be considered, as the largest engine 
thus equipped may be "fired" with far less labor than 
is required on the smallest coal-burning, narrow-gauge 
locomotive. 



THE WESTINGHOTJSE AIR BRAKE 

The application of steam as a motive power for run- 
ning trains of cars solved one great problem; but it 

[mi] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

created another. The second one was the problem of 
how to stop the trains once they had started. On short 
trains made up of the light cars used at first, the hand 
brakes were sufficiently effective for practical purposes. 
But as trains were increased in length and weight and 
were run at high speeds, it became imperative to find 
some means of stopping such trains quickly and with 
certainty. 

With a hand brake working on each pair of trucks, 
as on passenger coaches, it was possible to make rea- 
sonably quick stops when there were enough members 
of the train crew to work all the brakes simultaneously. 
But in practice it was found impossible to maintain 
this ideal condition. For emergency stops the brake- 
men were summoned by signals of the whistle given by 
the engineer, and there was necessarily some little in- 
terval of time after this signal before the most alert 
crew could begin the relatively slow process of apply- 
ing the brakes. 

The engineer himself could give valuable aid in 
stopping the train by reversing his engine, the locomo- 
tive acting as a brake to check the oncoming cars. But 
this check acted only at the forward part of the train, 
and being applied suddenly, caused the rear cars to 
rush against the forward cars with terrific force, some- 
times driving in the bumpers and wrecking the train. 
Obviously an ideal system of brakes must be one that 
acted upon all the cars of the train simultaneously and 
under control of the engineer; and presently such a 
system was invented by Mr. George Westinghouse. 

Other inventors had tried to produce a practical 
[142] 



THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 

system of brakes, such as those using steam as a work- 
ing force, or systems of hand- wound springs; but Mr. 
Westinghouse utilized compressed air, and from the 
first his brakes proved effective. 

His first air brake, operated successfully in 1869, 
was the "straight air brake" type — one that has now 
been replaced almost universally by the automatic. In 
this brake system there was an air reservoir on the loco- 
motive, and steam was used for making the compres- 
sion. From this reservoir a line of gas pipe ran through 
the cab of the engine beneath the tender and under 
each car, the space between the cars being bridged by 
rubber tubes and easily-adjusted couplings. This line 
of pipe, called the train pipe, was connected near the 
centre of each car with a cylinder which contained a 
piston with a stem which acted upon the brake shoes 
by means of a series of levers and connecting rods. 

In the cab, placed conveniently for the engineer, was 
a valve by means of which he could cause the com- 
pressed air to flow into the train pipe and thus act 
upon the brake cylinders of the cars. This could be 
done gradually for making a slow stop, or with full 
force as the case required, and the brakes could be re- 
leased by turning the valve to a point which opened a 
vent and allowed the air to escape. 

The effect of this invention was revolutionary. 
Stopping the train was no longer dependent upon 
manual labor applied intermittently at different points, 
but was placed entirely in the hands of the engineer 
who applied the required power almost simultaneously 
at all points along his line of cars. Thus the brake- 

[143] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

man was relieved of one of his perilous tasks, which on 
freight trains took a heavy toll in loss of lives. 

This relatively simple, and usually effective, sys- 
tem had two grave defects. The first of these lay in 
the fact that if there was a leak — even a very small one 
— anywhere along the line of the train pipe or the brake 
cylinders, the brakes would not work, the compressed 
air being exhausted into the atmosphere instead of act- 
ing on the brake cylinders. The common accident of 
having his train "break in two" rendered the engineer 
powerless to stop the cars, and disastrous " runaways " 
sometimes resulted. The second defect, which became 
more and more apparent as the length of trains was in- 
creased, was the impossibility of applying the air to 
the brakes of the rear cars as quickly as to those near 
the engine, since the compressed air could not travel 
the length of the train pipe instantaneously, on account 
of the frictional resistance. 

These defects were quickly recognized by Mr. West- 
inghouse, and in 1876, seven years after he applied his 
first invention, he produced his automatic air brake 
which overcame them effectually. In this brake the 
train pipe and the air reservoir were retained as in the 
straight air brake system, but in addition each car was 
equipped with a storage reservoir of sufficient size to 
supply the brake cylinder. In place of the older ar- 
rangement in which the train pipe simply retained air 
at atmospheric pressure when not in use, the new sys- 
tem kept the air in the train pipe under a considerable 
pressure at all times when the brake was not in use. 
And, reversing the conditions of the straight air brake, 

[i44] 




A century's progress in locomotive building. 

Fig. i. — The Blenkinsop locomotive, built in 1 812-13 to work on the rack 
Railway between Leeds and the Middleton colliery, a distance of 3.5 miles. This 
was the first commercially successful enterprise in which steam locomotives were 
employed. Fig. 2. — Model of locomotive engine No. 1 of the Stockton and Dar- 
lington Railway, England, built by Messrs R. Stevenson & Company in 1825. 
This engine ran successfully for 21 years. Fig. 3. — The locomotive "Royal 
George" which worked on the Stockton and Darlington Railway 182 7-1842. It 
will be observed that each of these engines antedated Stevenson's famous " Rocket." 
Fig. 4> — Shows, bv way of contrast with these earliest types of locomotive, the 
"Twentieth Century Limited" train of the New York Central Railroad, and a 
racing automobile, either of which can easily make better time than a mile a min- 
ute, as against the two or three miles per hour of their prototypes. 



THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 

the engineer in order to apply the brakes let out the 
air in the train pipe instead of forcing air into it, a 
"triple valve' ' on each car performing the work of 
operating the brake cylinder automatically. 

The advantage of this system over the older one is 
obvious. Whereas the detachment of a portion of the 
train, or a leak in any part of the air brake system 
heretofore had left the engineer helpless, exactly the 
reverse condition was produced in the new system. 
Any leakage of air, either from a break or a defect, 
caused every brake on the entire train to be applied 
to the wheels and brought the train to a stop. More- 
over, with the new system it was now possible to equip 
each car with a valve which would lessen the pressure 
of air in the train pipe so that the train could be brought 
to a stop by the trainmen in the rear or intermediate 
coaches as readily as by the engineer. 

This system worked perfectly on passenger trains; 
but on long freight trains the resistance to the passage 
of the escaping air through the train tube was so great 
that if an emergency required the full force of the brake 
to be applied suddenly, the brakes of the rear cars did 
not come into use until several seconds after those of 
the forward cars. The result was that the momentum 
of the rear cars caused them to strike the forward cars 
with great violence. But Mr. Westinghouse overcame 
this defect by an ingenious use of the triple valve mech- 
anism of each car, whereby the application of the 
emergency brake by the engineer caused the air in the 
train pipe on each car to be discharged simultaneously 
into the brake cylinder. In this manner the discharge 

VOL. VII. 10 [ I45 ] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

of air not only allowed the brakes to act, but assisted 
them in doing so. This was only the case, however, 
when the emergency application of the brake was 
made, this system of venting on each car into the brake 
cylinder not being brought into play when ordinary 
stops were made. Thus the engineer in this quick- 
action automatic air brake has really two brakes at 
his command, one for making ordinary stops, the other 
for emergencies. 

In 1 89 1 a so-called high-speed air brake was per- 
fected, this brake being really a modified quick-action 
automatic brake. This modification consists of the 
addition of an automatic pressure-reducing valve con- 
nected with each brake cylinder. In the high-speed air 
brake as applied when the train is running rapidly, the 
highest possible pressure is applied at once to the 
wheels, but this pressure is lessened by the automatic 
pressure-reducing valves as the speed diminishes. This 
method of applying the brakes is the most effective 
way of getting the full benefit of their stopping power. 
This high-speed brake, therefore, represents the high- 
est perfection in train-stopping devices. 

We have referred here specifically to the air brake as 
used on steam railroads. In another chapter the sub- 
ject has been touched upon in connection with electric 
railroads. In such brakes the compression of the air 
is accomplished by electricity instead of steam, but the 
general principles involved are the same as those just 
described. 

It should not be understood that the Westinghouse 
air brake was the only one, or the only type of brake, 

[146] 



THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 

devised and brought to practical perfection. For a 
time a vacuum brake, which utilized atmospheric pres- 
sure, offered keen rivalry. But eventually the type of 
brake perfected by Mr. Westinghouse, modified in cer- 
tain details in the various countries of Europe and 
America, gained precedence, which it still retains. 



AUTOMATIC COUPLINGS 

The perfection of the air brake removed one great 
source of danger that menaced the crews of freight 
trains. There still remained another almost as great, 
particularly in the matter of maiming its victims, when 
not actually killing them. This was the old method of 
coupling freight cars as practiced in America. There 
were few old-time trainmen, indeed, who could show 
a complete set of full length digits, the buffers of the 
old-fashioned couplings being responsible for the lost 
and shortened members. 

The freight brakeman has to make scores of coup- 
lings on every trip. And he literally took his life in 
his hands upon each and every occasion of making a 
coupling by the old method. 

This old form of couplings consisted of two buffers 
— one on each car — joined together by an iron link 
about fifteen inches long, a movable pin inserted at 
either end holding the link in place and thus joining 
the cars. When a coupling was to be made the brake- 
man raised the pin in the buffer of the stationary car 
and tilted it at an angle in the pin-hole at the top of 
the buffer so that, while it remained raised, the jar of 

[1473 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

the striking buffers at the moment of coupling caused 
it to fall into place and complete the coupling. The 
link was left hanging in the moving car which was 
being shunted in to be coupled ; but in this position the 
projecting end was so low that it would miss the hole 
in the opposite buffer, and thus fail to make the coup- 
ling, unless raised and inserted just at the moment be- 
fore the buffers came together. 

This raising and inserting of the link was the dan- 
gerous part of making a coupling. It could only be 
done by the brakeman while standing between the cars. 
And he must raise the link, insert it, and remove his 
hand in a fraction of a second if the car was moving at 
a fair rate of speed, otherwise his fingers or hand would 
be caught between the buffers and crushed. And a 
crushed hand or arm meant subsequent amputation, 
for the force of the collision between the buffers crushed 
the bones beyond repair. 

There was a way in which the coupling could be 
made whereby the hand was not endangered. This 
was by using a stick for raising and guiding the link 
into the buffer. Some railroads at first furnished sticks 
for this purpose. But no brakeman would stoop to use 
them. Had he done so he would have been hooted and 
jeered off the road by his train mates. And so his 
pride made him risk his limbs and his life, and fostered 
the recklessness of the old-time brakeman. 

But in 1879 Mr. Eli Janney, of Pittsburg, patented 
an automatic car-coupler that was both simple and 
effective; and in 1887 the Master Car Builders' Asso- 
ciation accepted this type of coupler. A little later the 

[148] 



THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 

U. S. Government, influenced by the appalling loss of 
life among the brakemen, passed laws compelling all 
cars to be equipped with some form of automatic coup- 
ling device, and naturally the Janney coupling was the 
one adopted. In using this coupling the brakeman did 
not have to step into the dangerous position between 
the cars, either for making the coupling, or disconnect- 
ing the car. The act of coupling was done automatic- 
ally, while the uncoupling was effected by the use of a 
lever operated from the side of the car. 

A somewhat technical description of this coupling 
is as follows: 

"The Janney coupling consists of a steel jaw fitted 
on one side with a knuckle or L-shaped lever turning 
on a vertical pin; this knuckle when being swung in- 
ward lifts a locking pin which subsequently drops and 
so prevents the return of the knuckle. An identical 
coupler is fitted to the end of the adjacent vehicle, and, 
so long as both or either of the knuckles are open when 
the vehicles come into contact, coupling will be effected; 
to uncouple, it is only necessary to raise either of the 
locking pins, by means of a chain or lever at the side 
of the vehicle. The knuckles have each a hole in them 
to permit of the use of the old link and pin coupler, 
when such a fitting is met with. At first, this coupling 
gave some trouble through the locking pins occasion- 
ally creeping upward, but in the larger model, which 
represents the later form, there is an automatic locking 
pawl that prevents this motion ; owing, however, to the 
pawl being attached to the lifting shackle, it in no way 
interferes with the pin being raised when disconnecting. " 

[i49] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

Even before the invention of the Janney coupling a 
semi-automatic coupling device had been used exten- 
sively on passenger cars. But this device which in 
effect was that of two crooked fingers hooked together, 
allowed the ends of the coaches to swing and roll in a 
manner most disagreeable to many passengers. The 
Janney couplings corrected this, since these couplings 
in their improved form hold the ends of the cars as in 
a vice. 



A COMPARISON — THE OLD AND THE NEW 

Stephenson's locomotive and its tender, when loaded 
to full capacity with fuel and water, weighed seven 
and three-quarter tons. The locomotive itself was a 
trifle over seven feet long. In 1909 the Southern Pacific 
Railway purchased a Mallet Compound locomotive 
which, with its tender, weighs three hundred tons, or 
approximately forty times the weight of the little 
Rocket. This great locomotive is over sixty-seven feet 
long, or some nine times the length of the Rocket, and 
will haul more than twelve hundred tons back of the 
tender. 

The cylinders of the Rocket were eight inches in di- 
ameter, with a seventeen inch stroke ; the high-pressure 
cylinders of this Mallet locomotive are twenty-six 
inches in diameter, and the low-pressure cylinders are 
forty inches. But curiously enough the driving wheels 
of the two engines show little discrepancy, those of 
the Rocket being fifty-six inches in diameter, as against 
fifty-seven for those of the larger engine. The total 

[150] 



THE THREE ENGINES WHICH COMPETED 
AT RAINHILE IN OCTOBER 1829 FOR THE PRIZE OF L500 

OFFERED BY THE 
^LIVERPOOL A>I> MANCHESTER RAILWiV COMPANY 





THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LOCOMOTIVE. 

The lower figure represents a longitudinal section of a modern French locomotive, for com- 
parison with the sections of the famous engines of 1829. The weight of the "Rocket," with 
its four-wheel tender which carried 264 gallons of water and 450 pounds of coke was 4 J tons. 
The French locomotive with its tender in working order, carrying 3300 gallons of water and 
five tons of coal, weighs 99 tons, and the length of the engine and tender is 56.3 feet. 



THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 

heating surface of the Rocket was one hundred and 
thirty-eight square feet, that of the new locomotive 
6,393 square feet. To heat this great surface oil is 
used for fuel, so that the task for the fireman is lighter 
than on many locomotives less than one-half the size. 
On this locomotive there are two sets of cylinders 
driving two sets of driving wheels on each side, making 
a total of sixteen drivers in all. From the size of these 
drivers it is evident that the engine is designed for 
strength rather than speed, although of course rela- 
tively high speed can be attained if desired. On the 
section of road over which it operates there is a maxi- 
mum grade of one hundred and sixteen feet per mile, 
and it was for negotiating such grades with full loads 
that the locomotive was designed. 



[151] 



FROM CART TO AUTOMOBILE 

THE use of the wheel as a means of reducing 
friction dates from prehistoric times. The 
introduction of this device must have 
marked a veritable revolution in transportation, but un- 
fortunately we have no means of knowing in what 
age or country the innovation was effected. We only 
know that the Chinese have used wheelbarrows and 
carts from time immemorial, and that sundry very 
ancient pictures and sculptures of the Egyptians and 
Babylonians prove that these peoples were entirely 
familiar with wheeled vehicles. 

The earliest form of wheel was doubtless a solid disk, 
and such a wheel is still in use in many places in the 
East; but the wheels of the Assyrian chariot were 
spoked after the modern fashion, and provided with 
rims of metal. The introduction of the wagon spring, 
however, was a comparatively modern innovation. 
The use of springs very considerably reduces the re- 
sistance, thus adding to the efficiency of wheeled vehi- 
cles; but the reduction is not very obvious unless the 
roads are tolerably good, nor is it probable that the 
ancient nations could readily have measured the effect 
even had the idea of springs suggested itself. 

[152] 



FROM CART TO AUTOMOBILE 

As regards good roads, these are, to be sure, no mod- 
ern invention, since the Romans had carried the art 
of road-building to a very high degree of perfection. 
The integrity of the Roman Empire depended very 
largely upon the highways that linked all parts of its 
circumference with the Imperial centre; and in a per- 
fectly literal sense all its roads led to Rome. The 
Roman roadbed was constructed of several layers of 
stone, and it was one of the most resistant and perma- 
nent structures ever devised. As late as the sixteenth 
century of our era there were no roads worthy of the 
name in England except the remains of those con- 
structed many centuries before by the Roman occu- 
pants. It was not until well toward the close of the 
eighteenth century that Macadam and Telford devised 
methods of road-making whereby broken stone and 
gravel, pounded to form a smooth surface, gave the 
modern world roadbeds that were in any way com- 
parable to those early ones of the Romans. 

This development of road-building corresponded, 
naturally enough, with an advance in the art of carriage 
building, and the increased popularity of stage coaches. 
We are told that about 1650 the average rate of speed 
of the stage wagons in England was only four miles an 
hour; whereas the stage coaches moved over the im- 
proved roadbeds of the nineteenth century at an aver- 
age speed of about eight miles an hour, which was 
sometimes increased to eleven miles. After about the 
year 1836, however, the stage coach was rapidly dis- 
placed by the steam railway, and the interest in road- 
beds somewhat abated until brought again prominently 

[153] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

to public attention by the users of bicycles and auto- 
mobiles. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BICYCLE 

It is rather surprising to learn that in point of time 
the automobile antedates the bicycle. Yet such, as 
we shall see in a moment, is the fact. Every one is 
aware, however, that the bicycle came into popularity 
at a time when the very existence of the automobile 
had been practically forgotten, and that subsequently 
it lost its popularity almost over night when the auto- 
mobile came to its own. Viewing the subject retro- 
spectively, perhaps the most singular thing is that both 
vehicles were so long delayed in making their way to 
public favor. There were, however, sundry very prac- 
tical obstacles placed in the way of the larger vehicle; 
and the bicycle was not at first a device calculated to 
prove attractive to the average wayfarer. 

The very earliest bicycle appears to have been the 
so-called hobby horse or dandy horse introduced about 
the year 1818 by Baron von Drais in France. It was 
a primitive vehicle, the user of which half rode and half 
ran, propulsion being effected simply by thrusting the 
feet against the ground. In effect the rider of the 
hobby horse ran with a stride greatly lengthened 
through the partial support afforded by the saddle, 
and with correspondingly increased speed. He could, 
of course, on occasion coast down hill or on a level 
surface when considerable momentum had been ac- 
quired, and supports for his feet were provided to 

[154] 



FROM CART TO AUTOMOBILE 

facilitate this end. x\t first the machine promised to 
become popular, but it was soon ridiculed out of court. 

Something like twenty years later — that is to say 
about the year 1840 — a treadle -bicycle was invented by 
Kirkpatrick MacMillan, an English blacksmith. The 
machine did not become popular, however, and it 
was not until simple cranks were fitted to the front 
wheel of the bicycle that this form of vehicle came into 
anything like general use. This very simple expedient 
was first suggested, seemingly, by Pierre Lallament, 
a Frenchman, in 1866. His machine came to be 
known in England as the bone shaker, and doubtless 
it deserved its name, for as yet neither the wire sus- 
pension wheel nor the rubber tire had been invented. 
Both these improvements were quickly introduced, 
however; the suspension wheel by Mr. E. A. Cowper, 
in 1868. The first rubber tires, used about 1870, 
were solid, and it was not until 1888 that the Irishman, 
Mr. J. B. Dunlap, introduced the pneumatic tire. 
Meantime the geared bicycle, with which every one 
is nowadays familiar, had been introduced in 1879 by 
Mr. H. J. Lawson and brought to the familiar form 
of the "safety" in 1885 by Mr. Starley. The combi- 
nation of low wheels geared to any desired speed with 
pneumatic tires was the finishing stroke. 

The problem of making the bicycle a relatively speedy 
vehicle had indeed been solved by the use of a large 
wheel — sometimes sixty inches in diameter — operated 
by a simple crank after the manner of the early machine 
of Lallament; but while bicycles of this type attained 
a considerable measure of popularity, the danger of 

[155] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

taking a " header" on encountering any obstacle in 
the road was one that seemed to the average person to 
out-measure the pleasure or benefit to be derived from 
rapid transit thus attained. The safety bicycle, how- 
ever, practically eliminated this danger. It was, 
moreover, comparatively easy to balance ; and not long 
after its introduction in perfected form, with pneu- 
matic tires, it had made an appeal to which all the 
world responded. For a few years the safety bicycle 
was the most conspicuous of vehicles on every country 
road, and partisans of outdoor life believed that the 
health and stamina of the generation were to be in- 
creased immensely by the new vehicle. 

Nor were these anticipations altogether visionary, 
as undoubtedly the bicycle did do much to improve the 
average health of nearly all classes of citizens. But its 
popularity was too suddenly acquired to be permanent, 
and at the very moment when it was most used, another 
vehicle was suddenly developed which was to lead to 
its practical abandonment by the great mass of people 
for whom it might have been supposed to afford a means 
of permanent recreation. 

THE COMING OF THE AUTOMOBILE 

The vehicle that effected this sudden eclipse of the 
bicycle is, as everyone knows, that form of power- 
driven carriage known in England as the motor car, 
and in France and America as the automobile. The 
first form of this vehicle to gain popularity was a tri- 
cycle driven by a small steam motor. But almost 

[156] 




THE EVOLUTION OF THE BICYCLE. 

Fig. i. — The hobby horse or dandy horse, the forerunner of the bicycle, which was patented 
in France in 1818 by Charles, Baron von Drais. Fig. 2. — The so-called "Bone Shaker" in- 
vented about 1865 by Pierre Lallement. Fig. 3. — "Phantom" bicycle introduced in England 
about 1869, its most important improvement consisting of wire spokes in tension in place of 
rigid spokes. Fig. 4. — "Bantam" bicycle introduced in 1893. Its peculiarity is an epicyclic 
gearing through which the wheel is made to revolve more rapidly than the cranks. Fig. 5. — 
An early safety bicycle introduced in 1876. The crank and lever driving apparatus is similar 
to that of a machine made by Kirkpatrick MacMillan in 1839. Fig. 6. — "Kangaroo" bicycle 
patented in England by W. Hillman in 1884. The peculiarity consists in the use of a chain 
gearing to increase the speed of the wheel. The principle is precisely that of the modern bicycle, 
though the application of the chain to the front wheel made a cumbersome apparatus. 



FROM CART TO AUTOMOBILE 

immediately the recently devised gas engine was called 
into requisition, and after that the development of the 
automobile was only a matter of detail. But, as so 
often happens with practical inventions, there are dis- 
puted questions of priority regarding the application 
of the gasoline engine to this particular use. The en- 
gine itself was perfected, as we have elsewhere seen, 
about 1876, by the German, Dr. Otto. 

It appears that in 1879 an American, Mr. George B. 
Selden, applied for a patent designed to cover the use 
of the internal combustion engine as a motor for road 
vehicles. Owing to technical complications the patent 
was not actually issued until the year 1895. Mean- 
time at least as early as 1885 Herr Daimler in Ger- 
many had used the gasoline motor for the practical 
propulsion of a tricycle; and not long after that 
date the right to use his patents had been acquired 
in France by Messrs. Panhard and Levassor. These 
men soon applied the Daimler motor to four-wheeled 
vehicles of various types, and almost at a bound the 
automobile as we know it was developed. Early in 
the '90's the custom of having annual road races was 
introduced, and before the century had closed the 
automobile was everywhere a familiar object on the 
roads of Europe and America. 

While the introduction of the automobile is thus a 
comparatively recent event, it should be known that 
the idea of using mechanical power to propel a road 
vehicle is by no means peculiar to our generation. 
Practical working automobiles were constructed long 
before any person now living was born. The very 

[157] 



THE CONQUEST. OF TIME AND SPACE 

first person to construct such a vehicle was probably 
the Frenchman, Cugnot, who manufactured a steam- 
driven wagon, using the old Newcomen type of engine, 
in the very year — by a curious coincidence — in which 
James Watt took out his first patent for a perfected 
steam engine; that is to say, in the year 1769. 

Cugnot 's automobile was a heavy four-wheeled affair 
intended for military service. It actually progressed 
along the road at the rate of three or four miles an 
hour. But the problem of carrying fuel and water 
had not been solved, and either for that reason or be- 
cause the authorities in charge lacked imagination and 
did not regard the device as offering advantages over 
traction by horses, nothing came of Cugnot's effort 
except the scientific demonstration that the idea of a 
self-propelled vehicle was not merely the dream of a 
visionary. A second automobile truck of similar de- 
sign, made by Cugnot a year or two later, may be seen 
to this day in the Museum of Arts and Measures in 
Paris. 

A few years later — namely in 1785 — an Englishman, 
William Murdoch by name, whose interest in steam 
engines is evidenced by the fact that he was in the em- 
ploy of Bolton and Watt, manufactured a small tricycle 
driven by a Watt engine. This vehicle, running under 
its own power, developed a good degree of speed; 
and had not Murdoch's employers forbidden him to 
continue his experiments, the practical automobile 
might perhaps have gained popularity an entire century 
earlier than it did. 

As the case stands, however, the automobile of Mur- 

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FROM CART TO AUTOMOBILE 

doch failed as signally as had that of Cugnot to gain 
general recognition. But it is quite possible that a 
knowledge of the device had come to the attention of 
another Englishman, Richard Trevithick by name, who 
was at once a practical experimenter of great skill and 
a man of fertile imagination. Trevithick, himself the 
inventor of a high-pressure steam engine, adjusted his 
engine to a large road vehicle, and in the year 1804 
exhibited this automobile on the roads of Cornwall, 
and subsequently in London, where it would probably 
have made its way had not the inventor been an ex- 
tremely erratic genius, who presently shut up his coach 
and turned his attention to another form of vehicle. 
This, it will be observed, was full twenty-five years 
before that memorable date on which Stephenson 
launched his famous Rocket. Nothing came of Trevi- 
thick's experiment at the moment, beyond the demon- 
stration of a principle — which indeed was much; but 
it was not long before various other inventors took up 
the idea, and as early as 1824 a number of automobiles, 
some of them weighing as much as three or four tons, 
were in successful operation on the highways of Eng- 
land. Some of these even gave regular passenger 
service, and attained the unprecedented speed of twelve 
or fourteen miles an hour. All this, it will be observed, 
was before the first locomotive running on rails had 
attracted any attention. Stephenson had indeed begun 
his experiments, but up to this time they had been con- 
fined exclusively to tramways in connection with 
collieries. 

In the year 1829 Stephenson made his famous 

[159] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

demonstrations with the Rocket, a locomotive running 
on rails, which attained a speed of thirty miles an hour, 
contrary to all the predictions of the wiseacres, who 
had declared the inventor a lunatic for hoping to attain 
even ten miles. We have already noted that the rail- 
way on which the test was made was not built with the 
expectation of utilizing steam power, that being regarded 
as a dreamer's vision. Lord Darlington prevented the 
construction of the road for a time because it chanced 
to run near his fox covers; and legislative permission 
was finally secured only with the proviso that the rail- 
way was to avoid the region of the preserves. Ste- 
phenson with difficulty secured permission to make an 
experiment on the railway with his engine, in compe- 
tition with other would-be inventors; and it was his 
unexpected success that turned the scale in favor of 
steam power. But even the startling success of the 
Rocket did not make a great impression upon the 
British public, the incident being given but slight no- 
tice in the periodicals of the day, and no mention 
being made of it in the Annual Register. 

All this is of interest as showing the attitude of a con- 
servative public toward the steam locomotive running 
on a railway, and as partially explaining the antag- 
onism to self-propelled road vehicles which found, 
most unfortunately, an exponent in no less a personage 
than the Duke of Wellington, then prime minister. 
The opinion and attitude of the duke were made evi- 
dent in 1829, in connection with a steam automobile 
invented by a Mr. Gurney, which was capable of run- 
ning on an ordinary road at a rate of at least ten miles 

[160] 



FROM CART TO AUTOMOBILE 

an hour. The duke was old, and age had strengthened 
his inherent conservatism. He lent a ready ear to 
the claims — largely instigated, no doubt, by persons 
interested in horse traffic — that the automobile on an 
ordinary road was a menace to public safety, and no 
doubt his influence had a large share in helping on 
the unfavorable public opinion and the adverse legis- 
lation which were presently to block the further progress 
of the motor car. 

Doubtless also the amazing success of the railway 
locomotive tended to attract the attention of the public 
away from the automobile, and thus made possible 
the passage of restrictive laws. In any event, the motor 
car, notwithstanding its demonstrated possibilities, 
virtually passed from the scene at about the time when 
the railway locomotive made its spectacular entrance. 
That public interest in the matter did not subside im- 
mediately, however, is evidenced by the fact that such 
a book as Gordon's Treatise on Elementary Locomotion 
by Means of Steam Carriages on Common Roads passed 
through three editions between the years 1832 and 1836. 

AN EXTRAORDINARY PIECE OF LEGISLATION 

Indeed, notwithstanding legislative rebuffs, here and 
there an inventor kept up his experiments, and in 
1 86 1 the automobile had attained so much prominence 
as to be given parliamentary attention. Four years 
later, in 1865, an extraordinary law was passed which 
deserves to be remembered as one of the greatest monu- 
ments of legislative folly ever recorded in connection 
vol. vii. — 11 [ 161 ] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

with an economic question. This law provided that, 
in the case of any locomotive moving on a public high- 
way, the number of persons required to drive the 
engine should be increased to three, and that the vehicle 
should be preceded by a man with a red flag. 

The latter provision suggests at first sight that the 
British legislator had here been moved to curiously 
un-British f acetiousness ; but there was really no such 
intent, as another provision of the law, limiting the maxi- 
mum speed to four miles an hour, sufficiently testifies. 

Other laws of similar tenor supported this one, and 
the validity of these decrees was finally sustained 
through an appeal to the Court of Queen's Bench, 
which brought forth the decision that the law applied 
to every type of self-propelled vehicle from the trac- 
tion engine to the Bateman steam tricycle. Naturally 
this decision gave the quietus to automobile — or, to 
use the more English word, motor car — progress in 
Great Britain. 

It appears, then, that the idea of an automobile 
travelling on an ordinary highway preceded that of the 
locomotive railway. It was, indeed, by far the more 
natural idea of the two, since tramways were at that 
time but little used outside of collieries. And it seems 
scarcely open to doubt that the repressive legislation 
was directly responsible for deflecting the progress of 
mechanical invention away from what seemed the 
more natural direction of development. It is always 
hazardous in such a case to attempt to guess what 
might-have-been under different circumstances; but 
considering the practical results already achieved as 

[162] 




AN ENGLISH STEAM COACH OF 1827 AND A NEW YORK TAXICAB OF 1909. 

The steam coach constructed in 1827 by Sir Goldsworthy Gurney was the prototype of 
several others which entered upon regular and successful service between various English 
cities, and which are said to have maintained an average speed of about 12 miles and a maxi- 
mum speed of a little over 20 miles an hour. The above figure reproduced from a contempo- 
rary lithograph shows the carriage that operated between London and Bath. It weighed about 
2 tons and carried six inside and 12 outside passengers. 



FROM CART TO AUTOMOBILE 

early as 1824, one can scarcely avoid the conviction 
that had legislation favored, instead of opposing, the 
inventor, the automobile might have been developed 
in Great Britain as rapidly as railway traffic; in which 
event the middle of the nineteenth century would have 
seen the world at least as near the horseless age as we 
are in reality at the close of the first decade of the 
twentieth century. What this would have meant in 
its economic bearings on civilization during the past 
fifty years, the least imaginative reader can in some 
measure picture for himself. 

In opposition to this view it might be urged that 
the real progress of the automobile has taken place 
since 1885, when the Daimler oil engine was substi- 
tuted for the steam engine in connection with motor 
vehicles. But in reply to this it must be remembered 
that the workable gas engine had been invented as 
early as i860, and that the Otto engine, of which the 
Daimler is a modification, was patented as early as 
1876. These developments, it will be noted, took 
place at just about the time when the new interest in 
the automobile had been aroused, as evidenced by the 
repressive British legislation just referred to. It can 
be but little in question that had the early interest 
in the British automobile been maintained, inventive 
genius would long since have provided a suitable motor. 
There was no incentive for the English inventor dur- 
ing those long years when the automobile was under 
legislative ban; and in the meantime the idea of the 
highway automobile seems not to have taken posses- 
sion of other nations. 

[163] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

When that idea did make its way, it was very soon 
put into tangible operation, as everybody knows. 
And the fact that England made no progress what- 
ever in this line until the repressive laws were repealed 
in 1896, whereas France, Germany, and America had 
leaped far ahead in the meantime, is in itself demon- 
strative. Moreover, as regards the question of a motor 
for the automobile, it should not be forgotten that the 
steam-engine is by no means obsolete. The victories 
of Mr. Ross' machine at Ormonde in 1905, and of the 
Stanley steamer in 1906 (a mile in 283- seconds), show 
that steam is distinctly a factor, notwithstanding the 
popularity of the gasoline engine. The steam motor 
might have served an admirable purpose until such 
time as a better power had been developed. 

However, it is futile to dwell on might-have-beens. 
Let us rather consider for a moment the spectacular 
development of the automobile with particular refer- 
ence to its striking capacities as an eliminator of space. 

SCIENTIFIC ASPECTS OF AUTOMOBILE RACING 

A mile in 343- seconds. That is the automobile 
record established at Ormonde Beach in January, 
1905. The record mile was made by Mr. H. L. 
Bowden, of Boston, with a machine of peculiar con- 
struction. It consisted essentially of two four-cylinder 
motors adjusted to one machine, giving an engine of 
120 horse-power. The machine weighed 2,650 pounds, 
exceeding thus by more than four hundred pounds the 
usually prescribed limits of weight. The record, there- 

[164] 



FROM CART TO AUTOMOBILE 

fore, stood as a performance in a class by itself. But 
that is something that interests only the specialist. 
For the general public it suffices that an automobile 
propelled by a gasoline engine covered a mile in 34-5- 
seconds, or at the rate of one hundred and five miles 
an hour. 

This record was made on Wednesday, January 25, 
1905. A little earlier on the same day the previous 
automobile record of a mile in thirty-nine seconds — 
made at Ormonde by Mr. William K. Vanderbilt, Jr., 
in 1904 — had been twice broken; first by Mr. Louis 
Ross, who made the mile in his 40 horse-power steam 
auto of " freak" construction in thirty-eight seconds; 
and by Mr. Arthur McDonald, driving a 90 horse- 
power car belonging to Mr. S. F. Edge. Mr. Mc- 
Donald's record was a mile in 34! seconds, and this 
stood for a time as the new record for cars of regula- 
tion weight. 

It thus appears that Mr. Vanderbilt's record was 
reduced first by one second, then by 4-3- seconds, and 
finally by 4! seconds on the same day. Obviously the 
conditions were peculiarly favorable on that day, or 
else a very marked improvement in the construction 
of racing automobiles had taken place within a single 
year. The latter is doubtless the true explanation, 
since, according to all reports, the conditions at Or- 
monde Beach that year were not peculiarly favorable, 
but rather the reverse. The fact, too, that the five- 
mile record was reduced to the low figure of three 
minutes seventeen seconds — this also by Mr. Arthur 
McDonald — on the day preceding that on which the 

[165] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

mile record was so completely smashed, corroborates 
the idea of improved mechanism rather than improved 
conditions. In any event, the jump from 39 to 34^ 
seconds is a notable one; as will be evident from a 
simple computation which shows that the record- 
holders of 1905 would have run away from the cham- 
pion of 1904 at the rate of no less than nineteen feet 
for each second of the mile. 

Let us pass at once — omitting transition stages — 
from these records to the new mark set on March 16th, 
1 9 10, at Ormonde Beach by Mr. Barney Oldfield. 
Driving a Benz automobile of two hundred horse- 
power, he compassed the mile in 27.33 seconds. The 
new record has a peculiar interest, not merely because 
it is the fastest mile ever made by an automobile, but 
because it is in all probability the fastest mile ever 
travelled by a human being who lived to tell the tale. 
A few unfortunates, falling from balloons, or from 
mountain cliffs, may have passed through space at a 
yet more appalling speed ; but they lost consciousness, 
never to regain it, long before the mile was compassed. 
The automobile driver retains his senses throughout 
his breakneck mile — they are keenly on the alert in- 
deed — and comes away unscathed to tell the story of 
what must be a truly thrilling experience. 

Nor is it merely in contrast with other human experi- 
ences that the new performance takes on " record' ' 
proportions. It is at least doubtful whether any mem- 
ber of the animal kingdom ever passed through a mile 
of space at such a speed as that attained by Mr. Old- 
field, The fastest quadruped on the globe is almost 

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FROM CART TO AUTOMOBILE 

unquestionably the thoroughbred horse. But the 
fastest mile ever compassed by a horse — Salvator's 
straightway dash in 1:35! — is a snail's pace in com- 
parison with Mr. Oldfield's speed. Salvator covered 
a little over fifty-five feet per second ; the racing motor 
covered a trifle over 193 feet — thus gaining 138 feet in 
each second. 

The trotting horse at its best — a mile in 1 158^ — is of 
course much slower still; Lou Dillon's record mile 
being made at the rate of 44 J feet per second. Dan 
Patch, the swiftest pacer, in his mile in 1 156 made just 
one foot per second more than the trotter. Both pacer 
and trotter, it should be added, made their records 
with the aid of a wind-shield, without which their best 
performances are some seconds slower. 

If we make comparisons with different varieties of 
man-made records, we find that the swiftest human 
runner covers his mile at the rate of about twenty-one 
feet per second; the skater brings this up to about 
thirty-four feet; and the bicyclist attains the acme of 
muscle-motor speed with his eighty feet per second. 
In the case of the bicyclist, the wind-shield pace-maker 
on the auto-cycle plays an important part. But even 
so the cyclist would be left behind one hundred and 
thirteen feet each second by the flying automobile. 

All these types of record maker, therefore, are quite 
outclassed. If we could not find any real competition 
for the automobile in the animate world, we must seek 
it in bird-land. Here, it might be supposed, the space 
devourer would find a match. But it is not quite 
certain that such is the case. The old-time books on 

[167] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

natural history tell us, to be sure, of flight speeds that 
make the new records seem slow. They credited the 
European swift, for example, with two hundred and 
fifty miles an hour. But more recent observers, made 
cautious by the scientific spirit of our age, are disposed 
to discredit such estimates, which confessedly are little 
better than guesses. 

The only officially timed bird flights are the flights 
of homing pigeons; and here the record credits the 
homing bird with only one hundred miles an hour. 
This means 124 feet a second, as against the motor's 
193. According to these figures, the automobile could 
give the pigeon a start of almost two thousand feet and 
yet sweep forward and overtake it in its flight, before 
it passed the mile-post. Perhaps the comparison is 
not quite fair, since no doubt the pigeon may perform 
some individual miles of its journey at 'more than the 
average speed; but it may well be doubted whether 
its maximum ever reaches the mile-rate of 27.33 
seconds. 

It is within the possibilities, however, that some other 
birds have even surpassed this speed. The falcon, 
for example, is probably a swifter bird than the pigeon, 
at least for short distances. Some one indeed has 
credited the hawks with a speed of one hundred and 
fifty miles an hour. But this, I feel sure, is a great 
exaggeration. I once saw a hen harrier pursue a 
prairie-chicken, without seeming to gain appreciably 
for a long distance; yet the prairie-chicken is by no 
means among the speediest of birds. Many of our 
ducks, for example, quite outclass it; indeed I should 

[168] 



FROM CART TO AUTOMOBILE 

be disposed to admit that the teal or the canvasback at 
full speed might give the automobile a race. 

There is, to be sure, one way in which the bird might 
get the better of a machine, thanks to its capacity to 
rise to a height. This would be by taking a sloping 
course downward. The little shore-lark often gives 
an exhibition of the possibilities open to the bird 
in this direction. After rising to a cloudlike height 
it soars about for a time singing, then suddenly 
sweeps downward, and, closing its wings, launches 
itself directly toward the earth, falling with meteoric 
speed till it almost reaches the surface, when it makes 
a parachute of its wings and swoops away in safety. 
During this performance the little lark is, I veritably 
believe, the swiftest-moving animate thing in all the 
world. But there is a reason why the bird could not 
increase its speed indefinitely by imitating the lark's 
feat in a modified form, and this is the obstacle of 
atmospheric pressure. Air moving at the rate of sixty 
feet a second constitutes a serious storm; at ninety 
feet it becomes a tornado, and at one hundred and 
fifty feet it is a tornado at its worst — a storm that 
tears up trees and overthrows houses, and against 
which no man can stand any more than that he could 
breast the current of Niagara. Now, of course, it is 
all one whether the air moves at this rate against 
you or whether you move at a corresponding rate 
against the air — action and reaction being equal. 
Therefore a very serious check is put upon the bird's 
flight; and it is this consideration which makes it 
seem doubtful whether any bird, except when aided by 

[i6 9 ] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

a strong wind, can attain such speeds as have been 
suggested. 

Of course, atmospheric pressure affects the automo- 
bile no less than the bird. In record-breaking speed 
tests of the automobile, machine and driver are in 
effect subjected to the influence of a veritable tornado. 
Theoretically it seems almost incredible that any power 
could drive a ton of metal against the air at such a speed ; 
practically we see the feat accomplished. But the 
automobilist has tales to tell of the power of the wind 
against his face that are easily credible. Even at ordi- 
nary speed in a touring-car, as most of us can testify, 
the wind blows a gale, veritably forcing tears from the 
eyes of the novice and blowing them back over his ears. 
To modify the antagonism of the wind, the construc- 
tors of racing motor cars adopt a model suggested 
originally by the body of a bird or of a fish, and long 
since made familiar by the shipbuilder. 

A MIRACULOUS TRANSFORMATION OF ENERGY 

Most of the automobiles, as everybody is aware, are 
propelled by gasoline engines. This is not their least 
wonderful feature. To the ordinary observer it seems 
quite incredible that a little whiff of air mixed with 
the fumes of a few drops of gasoline should produce 
a power that can drive pistons with such force as to 
throw forward what is virtually a bullet weighing more 
than a ton. 

The power that propels this amazing projectile 
consisted in the aggregate of a few cubic feet of gas- 

[170] 



FROM CART TO AUTOMOBILE 

eous vapors. The forward motion of the piston sucked 
a whiff of the gasoline vapor and air into the cylinder; 
the backward motion of the piston compressed this 
gas ; an electric spark ignited it ; the heat of the electric 
spark enabled the gasoline molecules to unite with the 
oxygen molecules with explosive suddenness; the 
conflagration thus started spread instantly to other 
parts of the compressed gas; the myriad particles of 
the gas rebounding from one another at inconceivable 
speed, pressed with the aggregate power of multitudes 
upon the cylinder, and drove it back with terrific force ; 
then an escape valve opened; the return thrust of the 
piston drove out the exploded gas, and one revolution 
of the engine was complete. 

Over and over again this cycle was repeated; each 
revolution requiring for its performance but a bare 
fraction of the time required to describe it. The thing 
is simple enough in practice, but it is a marvelous 
mechanism when you stop to think of it. That such 
poweT should be latent in a seemingly harmless whiff 
of gas is one of Nature's miracles. And that man 
should have, constructed an engine so nicely adjusted 
in all its parts as to utilize this power is little less than 
a miracle of mechanics. 

A word should be said about another interesting 
mechanism that pertains not indeed to the speed of 
the automobile, but to an accurate record of that 
speed. That is an electrical timing-device with which 
absolute accuracy of timing is assured. A moment's 
reflection will show that it would be quite impossible 
to time the automobile moving at record speed by the 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

old stop-watch method. The nervous impulse through 
which the mandate of the brain is conveyed to the hand, 
and thus made to operate on the stop-watch, travels 
along the nerve of the arm at the rate of not much 
more than a hundred feet a second. The delay 
thus involved, added to the time required for the 
brain itself to act on the message from the eye, is dis- 
tinctly appreciable, and every one is aware that indi- 
viduals differ as to their reaction time. 

The practical result, therefore, is that timers are 
often at variance to the extent of as much as two- 
fifths of a second. Now in two-fifths of a second, as 
we have seen, the record motor car covers a distance 
of over 77 feet. Obviously such latitude in measure- 
ment could not be permitted. Hence an electric de- 
vice has been elaborated which tests the speed with 
absolute accuracy, recording it automatically on a 
strip of tape. Therefore the fractional seconds are 
now stated in hundredths instead of in mere quarters 
or fifths, and we may be confident — as we could not 
always be regarding the old-time records— that the 
different fractions of a second represent an actual 
difference of speed. 

It may be of interest to make a further comparison 
between the speed of the record automobile and the 
fastest speed ever attained by a railway locomotive — 
namely, a mile in thirty seconds. The gap is by no 
means an insignificant one. A mile in thirty seconds 
means 176 feet a second. This would allow the 
champion automobile a lead of over seventeen feet 
each second; and at the end of a mile the locomotive 

[172] 



FROM CART TO AUTOMOBILE 

would be distanced by 1040 feet. It is interesting to 
visualize the procession that the automobile would 
leave behind if placed in competition with the various 
kinds of champions whose feats have been mentioned. 
As the automobile crossed the line the locomotive would 
be almost one-fifth of a mile in the rear; 1,900 feet 
farther back would come the homing pigeon; after 
a long gap Salvator, the first runner, would come strag- 
gling along, having covered little more than one-fourth 
of a mile; Lou Dillon would be just beyond her first 
fifth of a mile; the fastest cyclist would be placed be- 
tween the racer and the trotter; while Hut chins, the 
swiftest runner at the distance, would have gone only 
240 yards from the tape. 

For distances greater than two miles, the locomotive 
record has not as yet been surpassed by the automobile. 
A locomotive on the Plant system, for example, is 
credited with a run of five miles in two and one-half 
minutes (in 1901). But, of course, there is nothing ex- 
cept the mere matter of speed that makes the locomo- 
tive engineer's performance comparable to that of the 
chauffeur. The engineer is driving a machine that 
runs on a fixed track. He has to do little more than 
keep up steam and open the throttle. The chauffeur 
must pick his course, for at any moment a soft spot in 
the sand may tend to deflect him. How appalling may 
be the result of a slight deflection with a machine going 
at great speed has been illustrated by the tragic acci- 
dents that have marred the success of many important 
racing-events, and have led to the oft-repeated question 
as to whether, after all, such speed tests are worth 

[173] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

while. It is a question that everyone must answer for 
himself. The dangers are obvious; but, on the other 
hand, most athletic competitions have an element of 
danger; and enthusiasts may well contend that speed 
tests make for progress, and are largely responsible 
for the great mechanical improvement that is in 
evidence. 



[174] 



VI 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTRIC RAILWAYS 

THE United States has been preeminent in the 
development of street railways of all kinds, 
from the earliest type of horse-car to the mod- 
ern city and interurban electric cars. Nevertheless, 
very few of the great general underlying principles 
upon which these numerous inventions are based have 
been discovered upon this side of the Atlantic. Ameri- 
can inventors have simply excelled in applying the 
known general principles to practical mechanisms. 
But although the American inventors have largely mo- 
nopolized this field of progress, the names of many 
Europeans also are connected with it. In several in- 
stances these foreign inventors, as naturalized American 
citizens, have done their work in America, being at- 
tracted to this country by the exceptional opportunities 
offered. 

In recent years the city of New York has not shown 
conspicuous activity in adopting innovations and im- 
provements on its street-railway lines. Nevertheless, 
New York was the first city in the world to have a pas- , 
senger street railway. This, built in the early 20's, and 
running along Fourth Avenue, had rails made of straps 
of iron laid on stone ties. On this primitive line an 

[175] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

omnibus horse-car, called the John Mason, was oper- 
ated. This car was built on the lines of the early 
railway carriages, having three compartments, with 
doors opening at the sides. It was, in short, an early 
type of the side-door cars now used so universally on 
all European railways. The driver's seat was high in 
the air as in the case of the ordinary omnibus, and 
there were seats on the top for passengers. 

For several years this primitive road remained the 
only street railway in existence. But it did not prove 
a particularly good business venture, and for some 
time capitalists were wary of investing their money for 
the construction of other lines. Twenty years later, 
however, a somewhat similar road, considerably im- 
proved, was built on Sixth Avenue. This proved to be 
a financial success; other lines were soon constructed, 
and the era of street railways opened. 

The great advantage of these horse-car lines over 
the system of omnibuses then in use lay in the fact that 
greater loads could be hauled with the same expendi- 
ture of horse-power, regardless of weather conditions. 
The contrast in this respect was particularly marked 
in American cities where the streets, almost without 
exception, were badly paved. 

By 1850, several cities in the United States had in- 
stalled street railways; and by 1870 over a hundred 
lines had been built. Between 1870 and 1890 this 
number had been increased to over seven hundred, not 
taking into account the numerous extensions that had 
been made to many of the older lines. 

[176] 



ELECTRIC RAILWAYS 

CABLE SYSTEMS 

Even in the early days of street-railway construction 
the extravagance of the method of horse-power trac- 
tion was fully appreciated, and the numerous improve- 
ments in steam-engines stimulated attempts to adapt 
the locomotive in some form to city railways. But 
there were many difficulties in the use of the ordinary, 
or specially constructed, locomotives in the crowded 
thoroughfares of the larger cities. It was practically 
impossible to eliminate their smoke ; and their puffing 
and wheezing, which frightened horses, caused numer- 
ous accidents. But even if these defects could be cor- 
rected, the locomotive was known to be an expensive 
form of motive power, when applied to a single short 
car, carrying at most only a few passengers and making 
frequent stops, as was necessary in street-car traffic. 
The inventors, therefore, looked about for other methods 
of applying steam power. But it was not until 1873 
that this idea took the practical form of the cable road, 
on which single cars could be operated by means of 
underground cables travelling in slotted tubes, and 
propelled from a stationary power-plant. 

The first practical cable system was made by Andrew 
S. Hallidie, and his associates, who planned and put 
into operation the first cable line in San Francisco. 
It proved to be entirely successful, and was imitated 
almost immediately in most of the larger cities of the 
United States, and in some European cities. Within 
a decade the number of cable railways installed had so 
reduced the number of horses necessary for operating 

VOL. VII. 12 [ x 77] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

street-car lines all over the country that there was an 
appreciable depression in the market prices of such 
horses. 

The importance of this method of transportation is 
shown in the fact that between the years 1873 and 1890 
more than a thousand different patents directly con- 
nected with the operation of cable roads were issued by 
the United States Patent Office. But by 1890 electric 
traction had become practical, and the issuing of patents 
for cable lines ceased as abruptly as it had begun. 
Before the close of the century practically every im- 
portant cable line in the United States had changed its 
motive power to electricity. Thus in a brief quarter 
of a century this method of street-car traction had come 
into existence, revolutionized all hitherto known meth- 
ods, and become obsolete. 

EARLY SELF-CONTAINED SYSTEMS 

In most of the earlier attempts to solve the problem 
of electrical propulsion the motor vehicles were con- 
structed on a self-contained plan — that is, the power 
was generated on the locomotive itself, just as in the 
case of the steam locomotive. As early as 1835 Thomas 
Davenport, a blacksmith of Brandon, Vermont, con- 
structed such a motor operated by cells, and built a 
small circular railway in Springfield, Massachusetts, on 
which he drove this electro-magnetic engine. This 
miniature railroad was of no practical importance, 
but it has the distinction of being the pioneer electric 
road. 

[178] 



ELECTRIC RAILWAYS 

Shortly after this, Prof. Moses G. Farmer, a dis- 
tinguished American inventor and investigator, con- 
structed an electro-magnetic locomotive, which drew a 
little car, and carried passengers, on a track a foot and 
a half wide. The locomotive used about fifty Grove 
cells, which developed a relatively small amount of 
energy at an enormous cost. 

"In 1850-51," says Martin, "Mr. Thomas Hall, of 
Boston, exhibited a small working-motor on a track 
forty feet long, at the Mechanics' Charitable Fair in 
Boston, and while this was a mere toy, and used but 
a couple of cells of battery, it sufficed to illustrate the 
principles of a motor or locomotive with a single trial 
car. About this time (1847) an interesting demonstra- 
tion was also made with a small working-model, one of 
the features of which has been most instrumental in the 
success of the modern electric methods, that of the 
utilization of the track as part of the return circuit for 
the current. Doctor Colton, once a famous dentist in 
New York City, and noted for his early application of 
laughing-gas in that work, was associated with Mr. 
Lilly in the construction and operation of a small model 
locomotive which ran around a circular track. The 
rails were insulated from each other, each connecting 
with one pole of the battery. The current from the 
battery was taken up by the wheels, whence it passed 
to the magnets, upon whose alternating attraction and 
repulsion motion depended; then it returned to the 
other rail, connected the other pole of the battery, and 
thus completed the circuit necessary for the flow of the 
current. In like manner in a great majority in use at 

[i79] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

present, the current passes from one power-house to 
circuits of one polarity, through the trolley pole to the 
motor or electro-magnetic propelling system, thence 
through the wheels to the track, which completes the 
circuit by being connected to the other pole or side of 
the dynamo at the power-house. The principles are 
obviously identical, but it took more than a quarter of a 
century to develop the proper method of application in 
all its details. 

"The most serious and sustained attempt in the early 
period to operate a self -sustained vehicle or car — which 
would correspond with the storage-battery cars — was 
that due to Prof. C. C. Page, of the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion. About 1850, Professor Page devoted considerable 
time to the development of electric engines or motors, 
in which the reciprocating action of a system of magnets 
and solenoids or armatures was applied by crank-shafts 
to driving a fly-wheel, to which rotary motion was thus 
imparted. This reciprocal motion, as in steam-engines, 
was one of the prevailing features of the early electric- 
motor work in this country and in Europe; but it was 
not long before its general inapplicability was realized, 
and it was abandoned for the simpler and more direct 
rotation of the armature before or between the poles of 
electro-magnets. 

"On April 29, 1857, w ^ tn an electric locomotive on 
which he had installed a large reciprocating motor 
developing over 16 horse-power, Professor Page made 
a trial trip along the track of the Washington and Balti- 
more Railroad, starting from Washington. In order 
to obtain current for energization, the motor was 

[180] 



ELECTRIC RAILWAYS 

equipped with one hundred cells of Grove nitric-acid 
battery, each having as one element a platinum plate 
eleven inches square, dipped in the acid. Bladens- 
burg, a distance of about five and one-quarter miles, 
was reached in thirty-nine minutes, and a maximum 
speed of nineteen miles an hour was attained ; the entire 
trip to and from Bladensburg occupied one hour and 
fifty-eight minutes. But many disasters happened to 
the batteries. Some of the cells cracked wide open, and 
jolts due to inequalities of track threw the batteries out of 
working order. These experiments must have been ex- 
tremely costly, and no little discouragement among people 
in general attended this failure ; but Professor Page was 
not daunted, and for some years continued his work on 
electric motors, displaying great ingenuity, but not 
able, apparently, to give up the reciprocating principle. ,, 
The invention of the commercial dynamo, shortly 
after the middle of the nineteenth century, opened the 
era of practical electric-railway construction on both 
sides of the Atlantic. The German experimenters, 
Siemens and Halske, and later the American, Stephen 
D. Field, paved the way by numerous experiments and 
discoveries. It was not until about 1880, however, that 
the idea of using a third rail for transmitting the current 
was conceived. Hitherto, most of the inventors had 
attempted to use one rail as a receiving part of the 
circuit to the motor, the other rail completing the return 
part of the circuit. And it was several years after the 
idea of the third rail had germinated before the attempts 
to utilize one of the traction rails for conveying the 
current was abandoned. 

Mi] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

THE EDISON ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE 

In 1880, Mr. Thomas A. Edison, at Menlo Park, 
New Jersey, perfected a series of electric-railway motors 
and locomotives that were actually employed in hauling 
freight and passengers. The following year Mr. Edison 
made a contract with Mr. Henry Villard, which stipu- 
lated that the inventor was to construct an electric rail- 
way at least two miles and a half in length, which was 
to be equipped with two locomotives and three cars, one 
locomotive for freight and one for passengers, the pas- 
senger locomotive to have a capacity of sixty miles an 
hour. It was agreed that if the experiment with this 
railway proved successful Mr. Villard was to reimburse 
Mr. Edison for the actual outlay, and to install at least 
fifty miles of electric road in the wheat regions of the 
Northwest. 

The electric locomotives built by Mr. Edison were 
constructed along the usual lines of steam locomotives, 
with cab, headlight, and cowcatcher, the motive power 
being applied from the motors to the axle by means of 
friction pulleys. This method was soon abandoned, as 
the pulleys slipped a great deal before the locomotive 
actually started. A system of belts which was sub- 
stituted proved more satisfactory. The current was 
conveyed to the motor through the track, and was sup- 
plied to the road by underground cables connecting 
from the dynamo-room of Mr. Edison's laboratory. 
The rails were insulated from the ties by coatings of 
Japan varnish, and by placing them on pads made of 
muslin impregnated with tar. 

[i8 2 ] 



ELECTRIC RAILWAYS 

From the very first this road gave promise of success. 
The tireless genius of Edison was constantly finding 
and correcting defects, and there was every prospect 
that in a few months a practical and economical electric 
railway would be an accomplished fact. Then came 
the financial crash of the Northern Pacific Railway, 
involving the fortune of Mr. Villard, and tying the hands 
of the inventor at Menlo Park for the time being. 

The year following, however, Mr. Field and Mr. 
Edison combined their forces and formed a company 
for perfecting and constructing electric locomotives and 
railways. In the same year an electric railway was put 
in operation at the Chicago Railway Exposition, the 
chief promoters of this enterprise being Messrs. Field, 
F. B. Rae, and C. O. Mailloux. In the gallery of the 
building a circular track, something like a third of a 
mile in length, was laid, and on this an electric locomo- 
tive named The Judge hauled a single car which carried 
over twenty-six thousand passengers in the month of 
June. In the autumn of the same year, The Judge was 
used for hauling passengers on a track at the Louisville 
Exposition. It was capable of attaining a speed of 
twelve miles an hour, and its average speed was eight 
miles. It was twelve feet long over all, weighed some- 
thing like three tons, and, like Edison's locomotive, 
was equipped with cowcatcher, headlight, and cab. 
The current was taken from a surface, or feed rail, by 
means of bundles of phosphor-bronze wire, so arranged 
that a good clean contact would be made on each side of 
the rail whether the car was moving forward or back- 
ward. 

[183] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

THIRD RAILS AND TROLLEYS 

At the same time an Englishman named Leo Daft, 
then living in America, was making some important 
experiments with motors for the purpose of driving 
machinery, these motors being operated from central 
power-stations located at distant points. Mr. Daft 
constructed an electric locomotive, and in November, 
1883, constructed what was known as the Saratoga and 
Mount MacGregor Railroad. This railroad was twelve 
miles in length and included many steep grades. The 
locomotive, which hauled a regular passenger-car, 
received the current from a central rail. The year 
following Mr. Daft built and equipped a small road on 
one of the long piers of Coney Island, which carried 
something like forty thousand passengers in one season. 
It was an improvement over the Siemens electric railway 
established in Germany in 1881 — which, however, was 
the first road ever established. 

The following year the inventor began the equipment 
of the Baltimore Union Passenger Railway Company, a 
line that ran a distance of about two miles and reached 
an elevation of one hundred and fifty feet above the city 
of Baltimore. This road was put into regular operation 
in 1886, and was the second electric street railway in 
America for carrying on regular passenger service. 

The Baltimore Union Railway had several novel and 
important features, one of them being the equipment of 
part of the line with an overhead-trolley service, the 
practical importance of which had been demonstrated 
shortly before by Van Depoele. The projector, Mr. 

[184] 



ELECTRIC RAILWAYS 

Daft, also built several other lines in different parts of 
the country, constantly improving upon his earlier 
efforts, sometimes using two overhead trolley wires, 
with two trolley contacts, thus doing away with the use 
of the track as a means of current supply, or for use as 
part of the circuit. Although in recent years double 
overhead trolleys have largely disappeared, some of 
them are still in use both in America and in Europe. 

Van Depoele was a Belgian who had come to America 
in 1869. Although primarily a cabinet-maker, he had 
a great liking for the study of electricity, and devoted 
all his spare time and money to efforts to solve the 
problem of practical street-car propulsion. In 1883, 
at the Industrial Exposition at Chicago, he operated 
a car by electricity, using an overhead-trolley system 
somewhat similar to Daft's. By 1885, he had made 
sufficient progress to construct a line one mile long for 
carrying passengers from the railway station to the 
Annual Exhibition grounds at Toronto, Canada. On 
a single track he operated three cars and a motor, carry- 
ing an overage of ten thousand passengers daily, his 
train sometimes attaining a speed of thirty miles an hour. 
For receiving the current he used an underrunning 
trolley and pole very similar to the form now in common 
use, this being one of the first instances of employing 
this particular method of receiving the current. In this 
system an insulated track was used for returning the 
current. 

Van Depoele's next venture was the equipment of an 
electric railway at South Bend, Indiana, on which five 
separate cars were operated at one time — a thing sup- 

[185] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

posed by many to be impossible. The cars of this road 
were equipped with motors placed under the cars instead 
of above them, thus saving valuable seating-space. In 
place of the underrunning trolley and pole, however, 
the current was taken from the overhead wire by means 
of a flexible cable. Later Van Depoele invented an 
underrunning trolley and pole, taking out the original 
patents. His claims to priority were contested event- 
ually, but they were sustained by the United States 
courts. 

At this time there were at least a score of inventors 
whose work added something of importance to the 
solution of the problem of electric traction. But with- 
out belittling others, it is probably only justice to say 
that the work of Frank J. Sprague, a one-time lieutenant 
in the United States Navy, marks the beginning of the 
modern era of street railways. In 1888, after a period 
of struggle and a series of disheartening disasters, Mr. 
Sprague and his associates opened an electric line for 
the Union Passenger Railway of Richmond, Va., which 
" forms a landmark in the history of this industrial 
development." Over a line of road with grades at that 
time considered impossible, thirty cars were put into 
use at the same time, the contract for the equipment 
calling for its completion in ninety days. The success 
of this enterprise, when on the opening day more electric 
cars were operated than in all the rest of America to- 
gether, settled forever the question of the practicality 
of electric street railways, as well as many of the ques- 
tions of the practical application of the current, thanks 
to Sprague 's inventive genius. 

[186] 



ELECTRIC RAILWAYS 

This road was an overhead trolley-wire system, with 
an underrunning trolley held in place by the now-fa- 
miliar trolley pole. The number of difficulties that had 
to be solved in perfecting this apparently simple piece 
of apparatus is shown by the statement of Mr. Sprague 
that " probably not less than fifty modifications of trolley 
wheels and poles were used before what is known as 
the ' universal movement' type was adopted." 

In this connection the origin of the word "trolley" is 
interesting. It seems to have been corrupted from the 
word "troller" by the workmen of a Kansas City car- 
line. On this line an overhead wire was used, the travel- 
ling carriage taking the current from the wire being 
known as the "troller." The employees of the road, 
however, shortly corrupted "troller" into "trolley"; 
and "trolley" it has remained ever since. 

As in the case of Van Depoele, whose perfection of 
the underrunning trolley was contested legally, Sprague's 
great contribution to electric traction, the suspension of 
the motor directly upon the axle, had finally to be sus- 
tained by the United States courts. Sprague's method 
was to hang the motor under the car directly upon the 
axle, by an extension or solid bearing attached directly 
to the motor. This plan of constructing the motor, 
together with numerous other improvements, principally 
in the direction of lightness, simplicity, and adaptability, 
soon superseded all pre-existing methods of construction. 
Thus Van Depoele's method of taking the current from 
the wire, and Sprague's method of utilizing it in the 
propulsion of the car, must be regarded as epoch-mark- 
ing steps in the history of electric traction. Sprague's 

[187] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

invention demonstrated the validity of his contention, 
now universally accepted, that motors should be placed 
under each car instead of being used on locomotives. 



STORAGE-BATTERY SYSTEMS 

From the earliest attempts at solving the question of 
electric traction, efforts were made to produce some 
form of storage battery whereby the cars might be made 
independent of a distant generating plant. The ad- 
vantages of a self-contained vehicle are so obvious that 
it is not surprising to find the inventors persistent in 
their attempts at producing practical cars of this type. 
Such battery cars would not require the dangerous, 
expensive, and cumbrous system of overhead wires, or 
the more sightly but also more expensive system of 
conduits. With such a system of cars the elaborate 
mains and feeders for bringing the current to the track 
from the power-house, and for effecting the return 
circuit, could be dispensed with. Moreover, the in- 
dependent action of such cars over a system where the 
power is furnished from a single source, where the stop- 
page of the current stops every car along the line, is 
inestimable. 

Between the years 1880 and 1883 many storage- 
battery cars were built and put in service both in Euro- 
pean and American cities. Probably the most import- 
ant one of these lines was that which was built by the 
Belgian, Mr. E. Julien, in New York city, in 1887-8. 
On the Fourth Avenue road something like a dozen 
storage-battery cars were put in operation for a con- 

[188] 



ELECTRIC RAILWAYS 

siderable time, and later, improved modifications of 
these cars were operated in Philadelphia under the 
direction of Mr. Anthony Rackenzaun, of Vienna. But 
despite the apparent simplicity of the storage-battery 
idea, innumerable difficulties were perpetually present- 
ing themselves in its practical application. Despite 
the disheartening results, however, storage-battery cars 
were not entirely abandoned in practice until 1903, 
New York city being the last to surrender, as it had been 
about the last to adopt them. 

But in February, 19 10, the storage-battery street car 
again made its appearance on trial in New York — not 
the old heavy type of unsatisfactory car, but an entirely 
new and lighter creation of Thomas A. Edison, who had 
been striving for years to solve the storage-battery 
problem. This car, which had been tested on the 
Orange, New Jersey, street-car line on January 20th, 
19 10, maintained a speed of fifteen miles an hour in 
actual practice, and ran a distance of about one hundred 
and fifty miles without re-charging the batteries. 

There are some novel features about the car itself, but 
the all-important one is the peculiar and novel storage 
battery which it has taken Mr. Edison some nine years 
to perfect. In an imperfect form this battery was given 
a trial in 1903, and much was expected of it because it 
was not only lighter than the usual form of storage 
battery, but it promised more permanency because an 
alkali was used in place of an acid as an electrolyte. 

In this battery the positive element, which consisted 
of nickel oxide interspersed with layers of graphite, was 
packed in perforated nickel tubes. The negative ele- 

[189] 



THE CONQUEST OP TIME AND SPACE 

ment was iron oxide, with potassium hydrate as the 
electrolyte. This battery showed no bad effects from 
over-charging or from being rapidly discharged, but it 
was found that the graphite soon became oxidized and 
interfered with the working of the battery. This defect 
was corrected by substituting chemically pure nickel for 
the graphite, but another was soon discovered. Under 
the pressure of the oxide of nickel the square tubes con- 
taining the nickel were frequently injured so that the 
powdered nickel oxide was sifted down on the pure 
nickel layers and insulated them. 

The only solution of this difficulty seemed to be to 
pack the nickel in strong round tubes four inches long 
and about the size of a lead pencil, the sides of the tubes 
being finely perforated. But the expense of producing 
such tubes by ordinary methods was prohibitive. A 
machine was finally invented, however, which made the 
tubes economically by using spirally wound ribbons of 
metal, the edges being fastened together during the coil- 
ing process. By the use of these tubes the battery was 
so far perfected that it was given extensive trials in 1908 
on electric vehicles ; and as these tests proved satisfactory, 
Mr. Edison began the construction of a specially de- 
signed street car equipped with two 5-horse-power 110- 
volt motors of very light construction. The car weighs 
complete about five tons, and the batteries are stored 
under the seats running along each side. 

This car was tested continuously for three weeks on 
one of the New York cross-town lines and performed its 
work so satisfactorily and economically that the manage- 
ment of the line decided to give the system a permanent 

[190] 



ELECTRIC RAILWAYS 

trial. The regular daily run of this car averaged some- 
thing over sixty-six miles, but this by no means exhausted 
the capacity of the batteries ; and it is estimated that it 
could easily have run at least one- quarter farther without 
re-charging. The surprising feature of these tests was 
the low cost of running. The total cost of electric power 
for the day's run was about thirty cents, or 4.3 mills for 
each mile. The ordinary New York street car costs on 
an average about five cents per mile for electrical energy ; 
but on the other hand, the carrying capacity of these 
cars is almost twice that of the Edison car. 

The actual cost of running the car, however, was only 
one of its many advantages. The fact that no under- 
ground conduits have to be laid or overhead wires 
erected and maintained makes the initial cost of install- 
ing the line far less than by any other system. The 
reduction in the cost of maintenance of the line is also 
an important item, as it is estimated that the cost of 
repairs on conduit lines is about $15,000 annually per 
mile. 

But the most convincing proof that Mr. Edison has 
really produced a practical storage battery car lies in 
the fact that, after testing his car for three weeks in 
actual traffic, the managers of the street-car line ordered 
sixteen similar cars for operation over their road. 

MONORAIL SYSTEMS 

The introduction of electricity facilitated the con- 
struction of monorail systems of roads, which had long 
been the dream of railroad constructors, since this power 

[191] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

could be applied with so much more flexibility. The 
defects of the parallel rail system are apparent both in 
construction of the roadbed and the operating of trains. 
It is almost impossible to lay and maintain the rails in 
exact parallels, and even more difficult to keep each rail 
at the proper height at all points. Both these factors 
enter very largely into the determination of the speed 
that a train can make over such tracks, any very great 
variation from the parallel causing derailment, while 
slight depressions or elevations of either rail cause 
violent and dangerous rocking of the cars travelling at 
high speed. 

In any monorail system the first of these difficulties, 
the deviation of the rail from the parallel, is, of course, 
eliminated; and it is found that on a single rail the 
elevations and depressions are not serious obstacles. 
Moreover, the cost of construction of a single-rail track 
must obviously be less than for a double-rail track, and 
the power necessary to operate cars over such a track far 
less. But until the invention of the gyrocar (which is 
referred to at length in the following chapter) the meth- 
ods of balancing the car on a single rail presented 
difficulties which quite offset the advantages of the 
monorail system. Some of these methods are unique 
and a few of them are practical in actual operation. 

In Germany a suspension monorail system is in 
operation, the cars being suspended from an overhead 
track. But obviously such a system, which requires 
elaborate and expensive steel trestle-work along every 
fork of the road, is not adapted to the use of long-distance 
roads except in thickly populated districts. A less ex- 

[192] 



ELECTRIC RAILWAYS 

pensive and highly satisfactory system is the one invent- 
ed by Mr. Howard Hansel Tunis and used at the James- 
town Exhibition in 1907. 

In this system the wheels, arranged in tandem, have 
double flanges which keep them on the single-rail track, 
and the cars are prevented from toppling over by over- 
head guides. These guides must be supported on a 
frame-work, but as there is little tendency to sway on 
a single-rail track, they can be relatively light structures. 
It is the cost of these frames, however, that practically 
offsets the low cost of road-bed construction, so that, 
everything considered, the mere matter of initial cost 
has no very great advantage over the ordinary double- 
rail road. But the cost of operating is considerably 
less than the older type, and this road would undoubt- 
edly come rapidly into popularity but for the fact that 
such gyrocars as the ones invented in England and 
Germany are self-sustaining on the rail, doing away 
with the expensive overhead frame-work construction, 
and are likely to become practical factors in the problem 
of transportation. 

In 1909 an electric aerial monorail up the Wetterhorn 
in the Alps was put into operation. On this line a car 
suspended on two cables, one above the other and with- 
out supports except at the upper and lower terminals, 
rises at an angle of forty-five degrees through a distance 
of 1,250 feet. There are two sets of these cables, each 
carrying a car so arranged as to work in alternate direc- 
tions simultaneously, this counter-balancing effecting a 
great saving in power. The power-plant is located at 
the upper end of the ascent, and consists of winding 
vol. vii.— 13 [193] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

drums actuated by electricity which raise and lower the 
cars by means of cables. On the cars themselves, there- 
fore, there is no power, but each car is equipped with 
brakes powerful enough to stop and hold it notwith- 
standing the steepness of the incline. 

There is nothing particularly novel in the principles 
involved in this aerial road, but it is the first of its kind 
to be built for passenger traffic. Similar less preten- 
tious roads have been in use for freight transportation 
for several years. But the success of this road means 
the building of others on inaccessible mountain inclines 
where the laying of ordinary roadbeds is out of the 
question, and the operating of cog roads too expensive. 



[i94] 



VII 

THE GYROCAR 

ON the 8th of May, 1907, Mr. Louis Bren- 
nan exhibited, at a soiree of the Royal 
Society in London, a remarkable piece of 
mechanism, which stirred the imagination of every be- 
holder, and — next morning — as reported by the news- 
papers, aroused the amazed interest of the world. This 
invention consists of a car run on a single rail, standing 
erect like a bicycle when in motion; but, unlike the 
bicycle, being equally stable when at rest. 

It is a car that could cross the gorge of Niagara on a 
tight-rope, like Blondin himself, but with far greater 
security; a car that shows many strange properties, seem- 
ing to defy not gravitation alone but the simplest laws of 
motion. For example, if a weight is placed on one edge 
of the car that side rises higher instead of being lowered. 

If you push against the side with your hand, the 
mysterious creature — you feel that it must be endowed 
with life — is actually felt to push back as if resenting the 
affront. 

Similarly, if the wind blows against the car, it veers 
over toward the wind. If the track on which it runs — 
consisting of an ordinary gas-pipe or of a cable of wire — 
is curved, even very sharply, the car follows the curve 
without difficulty, and, in defiance of ordinary laws of 

[195] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

motion, actually leans inward as a bicycle rider leans 
under the same circumstances, instead of being careened 
outward as one might expect. 

A curious mechanism, surely, this new car, with its 
four wheels set in line, bicycle fashion, running thus 
steadily. But strangest of all it seemed when it poised 
and stood perfectly still on its tight-rope, as no Blondin 
could ever do. As stably poised it stood there as if it 
had two rails beneath it instead of a single wire; and 
there was nothing about it to suggest an explanation of 
the miracle, except that there came from within the car 
the murmur of whirling wheels. 

The mysterious wheels in question would be found, 
if we could look within the structure of the car, to be 
two in number, arranged quite close together on each 
side of the centre of the car. They are two small fly- 
wheels, in closed cases, revolving in opposite directions, 
each propelled by an electric motor. These are the 
wonder-workers. They constitute the two-lobed brain 
or, if you prefer, the double-chambered heart of the 
strange organism. All the world has learned to call 
them gyroscopes. The vehicle that they balance may 
conveniently be termed a gyrocar — a name that has 
the sanction of the inventor himself. 

Let it be understood once for all that a gyroscope is 
merely a body whirling about an axis. A top such as 
every child plays with is a gyroscope; a hoop such as 
every child rolls is a gyroscope ; the wheels of bicycles, 
carriages, or railway-cars are gyroscopes ; and the earth 
itself, whirling about its axis, is a gyroscope You can 
make a gyroscope of your own body if you choose to 

[i 9 6] 



THE GYROCAR 

whirl about, like a ballet-dancer. In a word, the gyro- 
scope is the most common thing imaginable. Indeed, 
if I wished to startle the reader with a seeming paradox, 
I might say without transcending the bounds of truth 
that, in the last analysis, there is probably nothing known 
to us in the universe but an infinitude of gyroscopes — 
atoms and molecules at one end of the scale ; planets and 
suns at the other — all are whirling bodies. Still there 
are gyroscopes and gyroscopes, as we shall see. 

GYROSCOPIC ACTION EXPLAINED 

Now a word about gyroscopic action. If you have 
rolled a hoop or spun a top you have unwittingly learned 
some practical lessons on the subject which, had you 
possessed Mr. Brennan's imagination and ingenuity, 
might have enabled you to anticipate him in the inven- 
tion of the gyrocar. Harking back to the days when you 
rolled hoops, you will recall that the child who most ex- 
celled in the art was the one that could make the hoop 
go fastest. The hoop itself might be merely a wheel of 
wire, which would fall over instantly if not in motion; 
but if given a push it assumed an upright position and 
maintained it with security, so long as it was impelled 
forward. It seemed able, so long as it whirled about, 
to defy the ordinary laws of gravity. A bicycle in motion 
gives an even more striking illustration of the same 
phenomenon. And best of all, a spinning-top. Everyone 
knows how this familiar toy, which topples over instantly 
when at rest and can in no wise be balanced on its point, 
rises up triumphant when whirled about, and stands 
erect, poised in a way that would seem simply miracu- 

[ J 97] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

bus to all of us, had we not all spun tops at an age when 
the world was so full of wonders that we failed to marvel 
at any of them. 

All these familiar things illustrate one of the principles 
of gyroscopic action which Mr. Brennan has put to 
account in developing his wonderful car — the fact, 
namely, that every revolving body tends to maintain its 
chief axis in a fixed direction, and resents — if I may be 
permitted to use this expressive word — having that 
direction changed. The same principle is illustrated 
on a stupendous scale by our revolving earth, which 
maintains the same tilt year after year as it whirls on its 
great journey, notwithstanding the fact that the sun and 
the moon are tugging constantly at its protuberant 
equatorial region in a way that would quickly change its 
direction if it were not spinning. 

But note, please, that whereas the whirling body 
assumes a certain rigidity in space as regards the direc- 
tion in which its axle points, the mere translation of the 
body itself through space in any direction is not inter- 
fered with in the least, provided the axle is kept parallel 
with its original position. 

You may test this if you like in a very simple way. 
Remove one of the wheels of your bicycle, and carry it 
about the room, holding it by the axle while it is spinning 
rapidly. You will discover that it requires no more 
force to carry it when spinning than when at rest, pro- 
vided you do not attempt to tip it from its plane of 
rotation, but that if you do attempt so to tip it, the wheel 
seems positively to resist, exerting a force of which it 
did not show a trace when at rest. A large top, arranged 

[i 9 8] 



THE GYROCAR 

within the kind of frames or hoops called gimbals, if 
you can secure such a one, will show you the same 
phenomenon; it will resist having its axis diverted from 
the direction it chanced to have when it was set spinning. 

If you ask why the spinning wheel exerts this power, 
it may not be easy to give an answer. The simplest 
things are hardest to explain. No man knows why and 
how gravitation acts ; no one knows why a body at rest 
tends always to remain at rest until some force is applied 
to it; nor why when a body is once in motion it tends 
always to move on at the same rate of speed until some 
counter-force stops it. Such are the observed facts; 
they are facts that underlie all the principles of mechan- 
ics; but they are matters of observation, not of ex- 
planation or argument. And the fact that a revolving 
body tends to maintain its axis in a fixed position is a 
fact of the same category. 

So far as we can explain it at all, we may, perhaps, 
say that the inertia which the matter composing the 
wheel shares with all other matter is accentuated by 
the fact that its whirling particles all tend at successive 
instants to fly in different directions under stress of 
centrifugal force. At any given instant each individual 
particle tending to fly off in a particular direction may be 
likened to a man pulling at a rope in that direction. 

If you imagine an infinite number of men circled 
about a pole to which ropes are attached, and evenly 
distributed, each one pulling with equal force, it will 
be clear that the joint effort of the multitude would 
result in fixing the pole rigidly at the centre. The 
harder the multitude pulled, so long as they remained 

[i99] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

evenly distributed about the circle, the more rigid the 
pole would become. But if, on the other hand, all the 
men were to stop pulling and slacken the ropes, the pole 
would at once fall over. The pole, under such circum- 
stances, would represent the axis of the revolving wheel, 
which acquired increased stability in exact proportion 
to the increased velocity of its revolutions, and there- 
fore of the increased force with which its particles tend 
to fly off into space. 

But be the explanation what it may, the fact that the 
axis of a revolving wheel acquires stability and tends to 
maintain its fixed position in space is indisputable ; and 
it is this fact which determines primarily the action of 
the little revolving wheels of the gyroscopes that balance 
Mr. Brennan's car. There are certain very important 
additional principles involved that I shall refer to in a 
moment, but first let us glance at the car itself and see 
how the gyroscopes are arranged. We shall find them 
fastened within the frame- work of the car, at its longi- 
tudinal centre, in such a way that their axles are parallel 
to the axles of the ordinary car- wheels when the car 
stands in a normal position. Granted that the gyro- 
scopes are thus transverse and normally horizontal, and 
at right angles to the track, the exact location of the 
mechanism within the car is immaterial. But the two 
gyroscopes must revolve in opposite directions for a 
reason to be given presently. 

MR. BRENNAN'S MODEL CAR 

The Brennan car as at first exhibited was only a 
working-model about six feet in length, and the gyro- 

[ 2 °°] 




RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT IN TRANSPORTATION — THE DE WITT CLINTON TRAIN 

AND THE GYRO-CAR. 

The De Witt Clinton engine, with its archaic coaches, represents the earliest 
type of railway transportation in America. The Gyro-car, two views of which 
are given, is the working model of a single-rail vehicle exhibited in England by Mr. 
Louis Brennan in 1907. It is balanced by an ingenious gyroscopic mechanism, 
which its inventor believes will prove equally successful when applied to vehicles 
on a commercial scale. 



THE GYROCAR 

scopes that balanced it were about five inches in diameter. 
It seems almost incredible that wheels so small should be 
able to balance a car six feet in length, but it must be 
understood that these small gyroscopes whirl at the rate 
of about seven thousand revolutions per minute, and, of 
course, the gyroscopic force is proportionate to the rate 
of revolution. If we recall that a light hoop making 
perhaps fifty or a hundred revolutions per minute 
acquires a considerable stability, we shall cease to 
wonder at the rigidity of the axles of the wheels revolving 
at such enormous speed. 

The model car accomplished the feat of carrying a 
passenger weighing about one hundred and forty pounds 
across a little valley on a wire cable, a voyage in some 
respects the most remarkable that any man has thus far 
been privileged to make. The car has shown that it 
can go up or down a sharp incline; but this, as a mo- 
ment's reflection will show, does not involve any change 
of direction of the gyroscopic axle, and therefore involves 
only the ordinary laws of mechanics. It is all one to 
the gyroscope whether the car moves on the level or up 
or down hill, so long as it moves straight ahead. 

Nor do the gyroscopes interfere in the least with the 
turning of the car in passing round a curve, when the 
two of them are linked together, as Mr. Brennan links 
them, so that any lateral change in the axis of one is 
balanced by an opposite change of the axis of the other. 
With the single gyroscope, such as Mr. Brennan used 
when he first began his experiments, the car encounters 
difficulties at curves in the track. 

But before we can understand how the two gyro- 
[201] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

scopes balance each other in such a way as to make the 
Brennan car lean in while passing about a curve, we 
must investigate more fully the action of the individual 
gyroscopes. I have already said that there is another 
principle involved as supplementary to the principle 
of the fixed axis ; this we must now investigate. 

Perhaps it would be fairer to say that what we have 
to consider is not a new principle but a complication as 
to the application of the principle of gyroscopic action 
already put forward. In any event there is an element- 
ary fact about the gyroscope that I have not yet stated. 
It is this: in order that the gyroscope may exercise its 
fundamental property of holding its axis fixed, it must 
have that axis so adjusted that it is free to oscillate or 
wabble. That sounds distinctly paradoxical, but it is 
a very essential fact. If Mr. Brennan had merely fixed 
two wheels rigidly in the frame of his car, they would 
have had no appreciable effect in balancing it. Had 
nothing more than that been necessary, some one would 
have invented a gyrocar long ago. But very much 
more than that was necessary, as we shall see. 

The complication of which I am speaking is illustrated 
by the action of the simplest top, which likewise owes 
its stability to its wabble. Your top does not rise merely 
because it spins, but because it wabbles as it spins — 
wabbling being the familiar word for what the machin- 
ist calls "precession." A freely spinning top, if in 
equilibrium, has no inherency to rise up against gravita- 
tion, as your top may have led you to suppose. Your 
top rises because it is not spinning freely in equilibrium, 
its action being interfered with by the friction of the 

[202] 



THE GYROCAR 

point on which it rests; it is seeking a position of 
equilibrium, which, owing to the location of its centre 
of gravity, will be found when its spindle is erect. But 
a top supported at both ends and properly balanced, 
does not tend to rise but only to maintain its position. 

HOW THE BRENNAN GYROSCOPES WORK 

It is such a balanced top as this that we must call to 
our aid in explaining the action of Mr. Brennan's gyro- 
scopes. The explanation will involve the use of a dia- 
gram perhaps rather unpleasantly suggestive of the days 
when you studied geometry, and I fear I cannot hope to 
make interesting reading of the explanation. But it 
will be worth your while to follow it, that you may under- 
stand the action of one of the most remarkable and 
ingenious of inventions. Figure i represents a kind of 
top called a Foucault gyrostat. It is merely a top or 
gyroscope in gimbal frames, such as I have already re- 
ferred to. With certain slight modifications, the dia- 
gram that represents it might also be a diagram of one of 
the gyroscopes in Mr. Brennan's car. Indeed, it was 
such a top as this that led Mr. Brennan to his discovery. 
Once while on a visit to Cannes, he purchased a top like 
this of a street vender — and the gyrocar is the outcome 
of the studies he made with it. This is also the kind of 
top with which Foucault, after whom it is named, proved 
that the earth revolves ; but we shall come to that story 
in another connection. 

Reverting to the diagram, the gyroscope or top proper 
is at the centre, revolving on the axis O A. It is 

t 2 °3] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

pivoted on the frame B A C, which frame is in turn 
pivoted so that it can rotate on the axis B C. Lastly, 
the outer frame B D C E is pivoted on the axis D E. 
Thus the apparatus as a whole is capable of revolving 




Fig. 



on each of its three principal axes. But under ordinary 
conditions it is only the inner wheel that is spinning. 
As this wheel is perfectly balanced, it will maintain 
steadily any position that it chances to have when it is 

[204] 



THE GYROCAR 

set spinning, and the outer frames will remain stationary 
unless a disturbing force is applied to them. 

Suppose, now, that the wheel has been set spinning on 
its axis O A in the direction indicated by the arrow, 
while its axis is horizontal, as represented in the diagram. 
The wheel will then tend to maintain its position 
and resist any attempt to displace it. But its resistance 
will be shown in a very peculiar way — whereby hangs 
our tale. If you apply a steady downward pressure to 
the frame B A C at point A, attempting thus to deflect 
the axis of the spinning wheel of the gyroscope, the 
frame will not tip down as you expect it to do (and as 
it would do if the top were not spinning) but instead, it 
will move in a horizontal plane along the arc C A B> 
the entire mechanism rotating on the axis D E. This 
motion is equivalent to the wabble of the top, and it is 
called " precession." 

Please remember the word and its meaning, for we 
must use it repeatedly. 

But now, curiously enough, if you were to apply a 
side wise pressure at A, pushing to the left (as we view 
the diagram) to help on the motion of precession, the 
obstinate apparatus will cease altogether to move in that 
direction and the point A will begin to rise instead, the 
frame B A C rotating on its axis B C This rise of the 
axis O A will take place even though the downward 
pressure is continued. You have disturbed the equilib- 
rium of the top — unbalanced it — and it must seek a 
new position. Contrariwise, if you would have the point 
A moved to the right, you must push it upward ; if you 
would have it go down, you must push it to the right. 

[205] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

This seems rather weird behavior, but if you will 
note the direction of the arrow on the wheel you will see 
a certain method in it. It will appear that in each case 
the force you apply has been carried round a corner, as 
it were, by the whirling disc, and made to act at right 
angles to the direction of its application. This change 
of direction of a force applied is strictly comparable to 
the change effected by the familiar device known as a 
pulley. With that device, to be sure, a pull instead of 
a push is used, but this is a distinction without a differ- 
ence, for pushing and pulling are only opposite views of 
the same thing. 

Possibly this suggested explanation of the action of 
the gyrostat may not seem very satisfactory, but the 
facts are perfectly clear, and if you will bear them stead- 
ily in mind you will readily be able to understand the 
Brennan gyroscope, as you otherwise cannot possibly 
hope to do. You have only to recall that pushing down 
at A causes motion (called "precession") to the left, 
and pushing up at A, motion to the right; and that in 
order to make A either rise or fall, you must " accelerate 
precession" by pushing to the left or to the right, re- 
spectively. But you must understand further, that 
when, through the application of any of these disturbing 
forces, you have forced the axis O A into a new position, 
it will tend to maintain that new position, having no 
propensity whatever to return to its original position. 
It is quite as stably in equilibrium with its axis pointing 
upward as when in the position shown in the diagram. 
One position is quite like another to it; but having 
accepted a position it resents any change whatsoever. 

[206] 



THE GYROCAR 

Now we are prepared to understand the Brennan 
gyroscope, which consists essentially of two such gyro- 
stats as that shown in our diagram A, set into the frame 
of the car on the axis D E, their wheels revolving in 
opposite directions and their outer frames so linked 
together that when one turns in one direction on its axis 
D E, the other must turn in the opposite direction. As 
the sole object of having two of the gyroscopes is to 
facilitate the going around curves, we may for the 
moment neglect the second one, and consider the action 
of only one of the pair. 

Our diagram 2, then, will represent one of Mr. Bren- 
nan's gyroscopes in action. It is pivoted into the frame- 
work of the car on the axis D E. If you examine it you 
will see that it is essentially the Foucault gyrostat of 
our other diagram, with the axis O A projected beyond 
the frame to the point F. 

In practice, the frame B A C is made to carry the field- 
magnet of an electric motor for spinning the wheel. But 
this in no wise affects the principles of action. Mr. 
Brennan's invention consists of the exceedingly ingenious 
way in which he applies these principles ; and to under- 
stand this we must follow our diagram closely. Looking 
at it, you will see that the spindle O F carries two rollers 
R 1 and R 2 which may come in contact under certain 
circumstances with the curved segment marked Gi, 
G2, Gs, G 4 , which are strong segments of the car-frame 
itself — the segments, indeed, upon which the force of 
the gyroscope is expended in holding the car in equilib- 
rium. It must be understood further that the roller 
R t is loosely fitted to the spindle O F and hence can 

[207] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

whirl with it when pressed against the segment G x or 
G 3 ; whereas the roller R 2 is fitted about anon-revolving 
extension of the frame BAC, and not to the spindle itself. 
Bearing in mind that the gyroscope itself is perfectly 
balanced and hence tends to maintain its axis O F in a 
fixed direction, we shall be able to understand what must 




t i 



Fig. 2. 



FIC.2. 



happen when the car is tipped from any cause whatever 
— as the shifting of its load, the pressure of the wind, or 
the centrifugal action due to rounding a curve. 

Suppose, for example, that the car tips to the right. 
This will bring the segment Gi in contact with the roller 
Ri, and the roller will instantly tend to run along it, as 

[208] 



THE GYROCAR 

a car-wheel runs along the track, because friction with 
the spindle causes it to revolve. But this, it will be 
evident, is equivalent to pushing the spindle F (or the 
frame ^4) toward B — " accelerating the precession" — 
and we know that the effect of such a push will be to 
cause the spindle (thanks to that round -the-corner 
action) to rise, thus pushing up the segment G lf and 
with it the car itself. 

The thrust will cause the car to topple to the left and 
this will free the roller R 2 , but a moment later it will 
bring the segment G 3 in contact with roller R 2 which 
thus receives an upward thrust. But an upward thrust, 
we recall, will not cause the spindle to move upward, 
but off to the right toward C; and so, a moment later 
still the roller R 2 will pass beyond the end of the segment 
G 2 > and the roller i£, will come in contact with the seg- 
ment G 3 , along which it will tend to roll, thus accelerat- 
ing the precession to the right, and so causing the spindle 
to push downward, bringing the car back to its old posi- 
tion or beyond it ; whereupon the segment G 4 will be 
brought in contact with R 2 , retarding the further oscilla- 
tion of the car and causing the spindle to move back 
again to the left. 

This sequence of oscillations will be repeated over and 
over so long as any disturbing force tends to throw 
the car out of equilibrium. In other words, the gyro- 
scope, when its balance is disturbed by a thrust due to any 
unbalancing of the car, will begin to wabble and continue 
to wabble until it finds a position where it is no longer 
disturbed, and this new position will be attained only 
when the car as a whole is perfectly balanced again. 

VOL.VII. 14 [ 2 °9] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

In this new position of balance, the car (owing to a 
shift of its load or to the force of the wind) may be tipped 
far over to one side, as a man leans in carrying a weight 
on one shoulder, to get the centre of gravity over the rail, 
and in that event the axis of the gyroscope will be no 
longer horizontal. But that is quite immaterial. There 
is no more merit in the horizontal position than in any 
other, as regards the tendency to keep a fixed axis. If 
it is usually horizontal, this is only because under nor- 
mal conditions the car will be balanced at its physical 
centre, just as ordinarily a man stands erect and does not 
lean to one side in walking. 

Reverting for a moment to our diagram and the ex- 
planation just given, it will be understood that the two 
rollers R t and R 2 are never in action at the same time, 
and that it is only the roller Ri that gives the side wise 
push that accelerates the precession (since R 2 is not in 
contact with the axle itself). 

The function of R 2 is to retard the precession and 
bring the axis to its normal position at right angles to 
the rail on which the car runs. There is nothing of 
mystery about the action of either which the action of 
our gyrostat does not explain, but the mechanism by 
which the different segments of the car are made to push 
against the spindle, and so force it to balance the car in 
order that it may maintain its own balance, is exceed- 
ingly ingenious. Mr. Brennan himself tells me that 
he has improved methods of accomplishing these results, 
which are not yet to be made public. The principle, 
however, is the same as that outlined in the earlier 
patents which I have just described. 

[210] 



THE GYROCAR 

If you have taken the trouble to follow carefully the 
description just given, you will be prepared to understand 
the anomalies of action of the gyrocar; for example, 
why its side rises when a weight is placed on it ; why it 
leans toward the wind, and why it leans to the inner and 
not to the outer side of the track in rounding a curve. 
The substance of the explanation is that the greater the 
force brought to bear on the roller Ri by the segment of 
the car that strikes against it, the stronger its precession, 
and hence the more powerful its lift. The oscillations 
and counter-oscillations thus brought about continue to 
operate powerfully on the roller Ri so long as the weight 
of the car is out of balance ; and balance is restored only 
when the heavier side of the car rises, bringing the 
centre of gravity over the track, just as a man carry- 
ing a weight on the right shoulder leans toward the 
left, and vice-versa. Thus, when the gyrocar has 
a heavy weight on one side, or encounters a strong 
wind, it may lean far over, but still be perfectly and 
securely balanced, the gyroscopes finally remaining 
quiescent in their new position until some new dis- 
turbance is applied. 

It remains to be said, however, that there is another 
element introduced when the car rounds a curve. To 
understand this, we must revert to the action of the 
Foucault gyrostat, as illustrated in diagram i. If you 
held such a gyrostat in your hand in the upright position 
in which it is shown in the diagram, and whirled it about, 
the axis O A would of course maintain a fixed direction 
so long as the gyrostat was free to revoive on the axis 
D E. But if you prevented such revolution, as by clutch- 

[an] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

ing the spindle E firmly, and then whirled the gyrostat 
about at arm's length, the axis O A would at once be 
forced to take an upright position. If your hand whirled 
to the right, the point A would rise; if your hand whirled 
to the left, the point A would go down; the principle 
determining this motion in either case being that the 
direction of whirl of the gyroscope must correspond to 
the direction of curve given to the apparatus as a whole 
by the motion of your arm. 

Exactly the same principle applies to the Brennan 
gyroscope when the car to which it is attached goes 
about a curve. The frame pivoted at D E revolves only 
within a limited arc, and then becomes fixed, and so the 
axis O F tends to tip upward when the car rounds a 
curve. If only a single gyroscope were used, this would 
tend to make the car tip in opposite directions, accord- 
ing to whether the car is going forward or backward, 
and the tip might be dangerous in going about a curve, 
as Mr. Brennan found to his cost in his earlier experi- 
ments. But when the two gyroscopes, revolving in 
opposite directions, are linked together, the action of 
one balances that of the other, and their joint effect is 
always to make the car lean in at a curve, which is 
precisely what it should do to ensure safety. More- 
over, the two linked gyroscopes keep their planes 
of revolution parallel to the rail, as is essential to 
their proper action, and as a single gyroscope would 
not do. 

The balancing action of the gyroscope seems no whit 
less remarkable after it is explained. It should be said, 
however, that the force exerted by the mechanism is not 

[212] 



THE GYROCAR 

so tremendous as might at first thought appear, for the 
gyroscopes are by no means called upon to counteract 
the entire force of gravity brought to bear on the car. 
They do not in any sense lift the car; they only balance 
its two sides, which when left to themselves are approxi- 
mately of equal weight. The car, as a whole, weighs 
down on the track just as heavily with the gyroscopes in 
action as when they are still. Balancing is a very differ- 
ent feat from lifting, as everyone is aware from personal 
experience. Two men pushing against the opposite 
sides of a monorail car could keep it balanced on the 
central rail though its weight vastly exceeded anything 
they could lift. 

THE EVOLUTION OF AN IDEA 

It goes without saying that so elaborate a mechanism 
as Mr. Brennan's gyroscope was not perfected in a day. 
Neither was it hit upon by accident. It belongs in the 
category of inventions that were thought out to meet a 
mechanical need. Mr. Brennan is an Irishman by 
birth, but he was taken by his parents to Australia at 
the age of nine and remained there throughout the years 
of his early manhood. Observation of the condition of 
the roads in Australia, and of the enormous retardation 
of development due to inadequate transportation facili- 
ties led him to ponder over the possibilities of improve- 
ment in this direction, as he was jolted about the 
country in a coach with leather straps in lieu of springs. 
It became clear to him that a way must be found to 
build railroads more cheaply. Furthermore, it was 

[213] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

brought to his attention through observation of the con- 
dition of the cattle that were shipped from North Aus- 
tralia across the continent, that a railway car that would 
enable the cattle to make the journey in comfort, and 
thus arrive in marketable condition, would have enor- 
mous value for this purpose alone. 

For years, Mr. Brennan tells me, the problem haunted 
him, of how to make a monorail car balance itself. He 
studied the action of rope-walkers, and he attempted 
various crude methods of balancing a car, which all 
came to nothing. He thought about the possibility of 
using the gyroscope, and even purchased several elabo- 
rate gyrostats in order to study gyroscopic action. As a 
friend of Sir Henry Bessemer, he knew of that gentle- 
man's experiments with the gyroscope in attempting to 
make a steady room in a ship, but these also availed him 
nothing. It was not until he purchased the toy top at 
Cannes, as already mentioned, that he got hold of a 
really viable idea; and then, of course, almost number- 
less experiments were necessary before an apparatus 
was devised that could meet all the requirements. 

At last, however, a model car, more than fulfilling all 
his fondest hopes, was in actual operation. It remained 
to build a car of commercial size. To aid him in thus 
completing his experiments, Mr. Brennan received a 
grant of $30,000 from the India Society. He believed 
that a car one hundred feet long and sixteen feet wide 
would be balanced by gyroscopes three and a half feet 
in diameter, so effectively that it would stand erect and 
rigid though fifty passengers were clustered on one side 
of its spacious room. 

[214] 



THE GYROCAR 

The accuracy of this prediction was put to the test in 
November, 1909, when Mr. Brennan exhibited the first 
gyrocar of commercial size. The result was demon- 
strative and convincing. The large car, carrying forty 
or fifty passengers, operated exactly as its inventor had 
foretold, and the doubts of the most skeptical were set at 
rest. Photographs of the car in actual operation, with 
its load of passengers, were sent broadcast, and it be- 
came apparent that the introduction of the gyrocar in 
competition with railway, trolley, and motor cars of the 
old type would be only a matter of time. 

When we come thus to consider the gyrocar as a 
vehicle in which all of us may soon have an opportunity 
to ride, there is one practical question that is sure to 
present itself to the mind of almost every reader. What 
will be the effect should the electrical power that drives 
the gyroscopes give out at a critical moment, as, for 
instance, when the car is just crossing a gorge or river 
on a cable? Mr. Brennan's ingenuity has anticipated 
this emergency. The gyroscopes that balance his cars 
operate in a vacuum, and all the bearings are so well 
devised as to give very little friction. The wheels will 
continue running for a considerable time after the power 
is shut off. The large gyroscopes of the commercial 
car, it is estimated, will perhaps require two hours to 
attain the highest rate of rotation, but they will then 
continue revolving at an effective speed for some hours, 
even if no further power is applied to them. 

It may be said, too, that the gyrocar is provided with 
lateral legs that may be let down in case of emergency 
or when the car is not in use, to avoid waste of energy 

[215] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

in needless running of the gyroscope. All in all, it 
would appear that the dangers of travel in a gyrocar 
should be fewer than those that attend an ordinary 
double-track car; and Mr. Brennan believes that it will 
be possible, with the aid of the new mechanism, to attain 
a speed of one hundred and fifty, perhaps even two 
hundred miles an hour with safety. 



[216] 




TWO VIEWS OF MR. LOUIS BRENNAN S MONO-RAIL GYRO-CAR. 

The gyroscopic mechanism for automatically balancing the car is contained in 
the cab-like anterior portion. The platform of the car maintains its equilibrium 
even when the forty passengers are crowded on one side, as shown in the upper 
picture. 



VIII 

THE GYROSCOPE AND OCEAN TRAVEL 

IT must not be supposed that Mr. Louis Brennan's 
remarkable monorail car affords the first illus- 
tration of an attempt to make practical use of 
the principles of gyroscopic action. The fact is quite 
otherwise. The idea of giving steadiness to such in- 
struments as telescopes and compasses on shipboard 
with the aid of gyroscopes originated half a century ago, 
and was put into fairly successful operation by Professor 
Piazzi Smyth (in 1856). More than a century earlier 
than that (in 1744), an effort was made to aid the navi- 
gator, by the use of a spinning-top with a polished upper 
surface, to give an artificial horizon at sea, that observa- 
tions might be made when the actual horizon was hidden 
by clouds or fog. The inventor himself, Serson by 
name, was sent out by the British Admiralty to test the 
apparatus, and was lost in the wreck of the ship Victory. 
His top seemed not to have commended itself to his 
compatriots, but it has been in use more or less ever 
since, particularly among French navigators. 

bessemer's costly experiment 

These first attempts to use the gyroscope at sea were 
of a technical character, and could have no great popular 

[217] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

interest. But about twenty-five years ago an attempt 
was made to utilize the principle of the spinning-top in 
a way that would directly concern the personal comfort 
of a large number of voyagers. It was nothing less than 
the effort to give stability to a room on a steamship, in 
order that the fortunate occupant might avoid the evils 
of seasickness. The man who stood sponsor for the 
idea, and who expended sums variously estimated at 
from fifty thousand to more than a million dollars in 
the futile attempt to carry it into execution, was the 
famous Sir Henry Bessemer, famed for his revolutionary 
innovations in the steel industry. It would appear that 
Bessemer's first intention was to make a movable room 
to be balanced by mechanisms worked by hand. But 
after his project was under way his attention was called 
to the possibility of utilizing gyroscopic forces to the 
same end. As the story goes, he chanced to purchase 
a top for sixpence, and that small beginning led him 
ultimately to expend more than a million dollars in play- 
ing with larger tops. His expensive toy passed into 
history as the "Bessemer chamber." It was actually 
constructed on a Channel steamer; but the would-be 
inventor, practical engineer though he was, did not find 
a way properly to apply the principle, and his experiment 
ended in utter failure. 

With this, the idea that the gyroscope-wheel could 
ever aid in steadying a ship at sea seemed to be proved a 
mere vagary unworthy the attention of engineers. But 
not all experimenters were disheartened, and since the 
day of Sir Henry Bessemer's fiasco a number of workers 
have given thought to the problem — with the object, 

[218] 



GYROSCOPE AND OCEAN TRAVEL 

however, of applying the powers of the revolving wheel 
not merely to a single room but to an entire ship. I 
have personal knowledge of at least one inventor, quite 
unknown to fame, who believed that he had solved the 
problem, but who died before he could put his invention 
to a practical test. It remained for a German engineer, 
Dr. Otto Schlick, to put before the world, first as a theory 
and then as a demonstration, the practical utility of the 
revolving wheel in preventing a ship from rolling. 

DR. SCHLICK'S SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENT 

In the year 1904 Dr. Schlick elaborated his theory 
before the Society of Naval Architects in London. His 
paper aroused much interest in technical circles, but 
most of his hearers believed that it represented a theory 
that would never be made a tangible reality. Fortu- 
nately, however, Dr. Schlick was enabled to make a 
practical test, by constructing a wheel and installing it 
on a small ship — a torpedo-boat called the Sea-bar, dis- 
carded from the German navy. The vessel is one 
hundred and sixteen feet in length and of a little over 
fifty-six tons' displacement. The device employed con- 
sists of a fly-wheel one meter in diameter, weighing just 
over eleven hundred pounds and operated by a turbine 
mechanism capable of giving it a maximum velocity of 
sixteen hundred revolutions per minute. This powerful 
fly-wheel was installed in the hull of the Sea-bar on a 
vertical axis, whereas the Brennan gyroscope operates 
on a horizontal axis. So installed, the Schlick gyroscope 
does not interfere in the least with the steering or with 

[219] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

the ordinary progression of the ship. Its sole design is 
to prevent the ship from rolling. 

The expectations of its inventor were fully realized. 
On a certain day in July, 1906, with a sea so rough that 
the ship rolled through an arc of thirty degrees, when the 
balance-wheel was not in revolution, the arc of rolling 
was reduced to one degree when the great top was set 
spinning and its secondary bearings released. In other 
words, it practically abolished the rolling motion of the 
craft, causing its decks to remain substantially level, 
while the ship as a whole heaved up and down with the 
waves. These remarkable results, with more in kind, 
were recorded in the paper which Sir William White 
read before the Institution of Naval Architects in Lon- 
don in April, 1907. He himself had witnessed tests of 
the Schlick gyroscope, and, in common with his col- 
leagues, he accepted the demonstrations as unequivocal. 

Fully to understand the action of Dr. Schlick's in- 
vention, one must know that it is not a mere wheel on 
the single pivot, but a wheel adjusted in such a fashion 
that it can oscillate longitudinally while revolving on its 
vertical axis. In other words, it is precisely as if one of 
the two gyroscope-wheels used in the Brennan car 
(greatly enlarged) were so placed that its main axis was 
vertical, its secondary axis, or axis of oscillation, being 
horizontal and at right angles to the ship's length. 
Thus, while spinning on its vertical axis the body of the 
top is able to oscillate, pendulum-like, lengthwise of the 
ship. 

In principle the action of this wheel is not different 
from that of an ordinary top on your table which wabbles 

[220] 



GYROSCOPE AND OCEAN TRAVEL 

to the right or to the left when you push its axis straight 
away from you. Yet to the untechnical observer it 
seems as if the Schlick gyroscope were a living thing, 
governed by almost human motives. If you apply 
a brake to prevent the longitudinal oscillations of the 
gyroscope, the effect, even though the fly-wheel still re- 
volves at full speed, is precisely as if you pinioned the 
arms of a strong man, so that he saw the futility of re- 
sistance and made no struggle to free himself. Under 
such circumstances the gyroscope — though it continues 
to spin as hard as ever — has no effect whatever in pre- 
venting the rolling of the ship; it stands there, like the 
strong man bound, expressing its discontent with an 
angry groan. 

But if you release the brake so that the entire mechan- 
ism is free to oscillate lengthwise of the ship, all is 
changed. It is as if you cut the cords that bound the 
strong man's arms. Instantly the mechanism springs 
into action. It will no longer allow itself to be swung 
with each roll of the ship; it will resist and prove which 
is master. Its mighty mass, pivoted on the lateral 
trunnions, lunges forward and backward with terrific 
force, as if it would tear loose from its bearings and dash 
the entire ship into pieces. It causes the ship to pitch 
a trifle fore and aft as it does so ; but meantime its axis 
stands rigidly erect in the lateral plane, though the 
waves push against the sides of the ship as before. The 
decks of the vessel, that were tipping from side to side, 
so that loose objects slid from one rail to the other, are 
now held rigidly at a level, scarcely permitted to deviate 
to the extent of a violent tremor. The gyroscope has 

[221] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

won the contest. To maintain its victory it must con- 
tinue its backward and forward plunging; but from side 
to side its axis will not swerve. 



DID GYROSCOPIC ACTION WRECK THE VIPER? 

It was the failure to understand that a gyroscope- 
wheel, to work effectively, must be given opportunity to 
oscillate in this secondary fashion that led Sir Henry 
Bessemer to spend an enormous sum in a vain effort to 
accomplish on a small scale what Dr. Schlick's gyroscope 
accomplishes for the entire ship. Now it is clearly 
understood that a marine gyroscope on an absolutely 
fixed shaft cannot exercise its full action ; but there is 
still a good deal of difference of opinion among engineers 
as to just how much a spinning body must be permitted 
to oscillate in order to make its gyroscopic effects notice- 
able. The discussion that has taken place over the loss 
of the torpedo-boat Viper furnishes a case in point. 

Some critics contend that the loss of the boat was due 
to the gyroscopic action of its turbine engines. They 
believed that the turbine at the stern of the little ship 
held that portion of the craft in a rigid plane, while the 
anterior portion of the ship, caught in the trough of a 
wave, broke away. That the ship broke in two is 
certain; but competent engineers have denied that 
gyroscopic turbines could have had any share in its 
destruction. According to their view, the turbines of a 
ship are powerless to exert the gyroscopic action in 
question, because their axes are fixed and they thus have 
not the opportunity for secondary oscillation to which I 

[222] 



GYROSCOPE AND OCEAN TRAVEL 

have referred. Meanwhile there are other equally 
competent mechanicians who believe that the vibration 
or oscillation of the body of the ship itself may suffice, 
under certain circumstances, to give the turbine pre- 
cisely such freedom of motion as will enable it to ex- 
ercise a powerful gyroscopic effect. Dr. Schlick himself 
contends, and seems with the aid of models to demon- 
strate, that such a gyroscopic action is exercised by the 
wheels of a side-wheel steamer, which revolve on a shaft 
no less fixed than that of a turbine. If such is the case, 
there would seem to be no reason why a turbine-engine 
may not at times exercise the power of a tremendous 
gyroscope, such as it obviously constitutes. The ques- 
tion must find practical solution at the hands of the 
naval architects of the immediate future, as turbine 
engines are now in use in several of the largest steam- 
ships afloat, and others are being installed in craft of all 
descriptions. 

THEORETICAL DANGERS OF THE GYROSCOPE 

It should be said that engineers disagree as to the 
practical utility of the Schlick gyroscope. No one 
questions that it steadies the ship, but some critics think 
that its use may not be unattended with danger. It has 
been suggested that under certain circumstances — for 
example, the sudden disturbance of equilibrium due 
to a tremendous wave — the gyroscope might increase 
the oscillation of the ship to a dangerous extent, though 
ordinarily having the opposite effect. 

The danger from this source is probably remote. 
[2233 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

There is, however, another danger that cannot be over- 
looked, and which marine architects must take into 
constant account. What we have already seen has made 
it clear that the revolving wheel of the Schlick gyroscope, 
to be effective, must bear an appreciable relation to the 
mass of the entire ship. Such a weight, revolving at a 
terrific speed and oscillating like a tremendous pendulum, 
obviously represents an enormous store of energy. It 
was estimated by Professor Lambert that a gyroscope of 
sufficient size to render even a Channel steamer stable 
would represent energy equal to fifty thousand foot- 
pounds — making it comparable, therefore, to an enor- 
mous projectile. Should such a gyroscope in action 
break loose from its trunnions, it would go through the 
ship with all the devastating effect of a monster cannon- 
ball. 

The possibility of such a catastrophe is perhaps the 
one thing that will cause naval architects to go slowly in 
the adoption of the new device. We can hardly suppose 
that the difficulties represented are insuperable, but un- 
doubtedly a long series of experiments will be necessary 
before the Schlick gyroscope will come into general use. 
The apparatus has been tested, however, on a German 
coast steamer. It may not be very long before craft of 
the size of Channel steamers and boats that go to Cuba 
and the Bermudas are equipped with the device. 
Naturally enough, this prospect excites the liveliest 
popular interest. Visions of pleasant ocean voyages 
come before the mind's eye of many a voyager who 
hitherto has dreaded the sea. 

But whatever the future of the gyroscope as applied 
[224] 



GYROSCOPE AND OCEAN TRAVEL 

to pleasure-craft, there can be little doubt about its 
utility as applied to vessels of war. It seems a safe 
enough prediction that all battle-ships will be supplied 
with this mechanism in the not distant future. Amid 
the maze of engines of destruction on war- vessels, one 
more will not appal the builder; while the advantage of 
being able to fling a storm of projectiles from a stable 
deck must be inestimable. 



vol. vii.— 1 5 [225] 



IX 

NAVIGATING THE AIR 

IF it were possible to regard all medieval litera- 
ture withouc more than a grain of doubt, we 
must believe that aerial flight by human beings 
was accomplished long before science had risen even to 
the dignity of acquiring its name. Thus, it is recorded 
by a medieval historian that during the reign of Charle- 
magne some mysterious persons having acquired some 
knowledge of aerostatics from the astrologers, who were 
credited with numerous supernatural powers, construct- 
ed a flying-machine, and compelling a few peasants to 
enter it, sent them off on an aerial voyage. Unfor- 
tunately for the unwilling voyagers, so the story runs, 
they landed in the city of Lyons, where they were im- 
mediately seized and condemned to death as sorcerers. 
But the wise bishop of the city, doubting the story of 
their aerial journey, pardoned them and allowed them 
to escape. 

That such a fabulous tale could gain credence is ex- 
plained by the prevailing belief in the powers of the 
astrologers and sorcerers at that time. People who 
could seriously believe that an alchemist could create 
gold and prolong life and youth indefinitely, would find 
nothing startling in the announcement that he could also 
perform the relatively simple feat of flying — a thing that 

[226] 



NAVIGATING THE AIR 

birds and bats accomplish with such obvious facility. 
And nothing is more certain than that attempts at aerial 
flight have been made at various times since the begin- 
ning of history. 

As with almost everything else in the matter of modern 
scientific advancement, the mysterious writings of the 
monk, Roger Bacon, are supposed to contain passages 
to show that the worthy friar had an inkling of the secret 
of air navigation. But he himself admits that he had 
only a theoretical knowledge of the subject, and had 
never seen a flying-machine of any kind in actual flight. 

Much more definite and tangible are the designs of 
possible flying-machines still extant in the sketch-book 
of Leonardo da Vinci, made in the fifteenth century. 
From Leonardo's sketches it appears that the artist had 
conceived the idea of constructing jointed wings to be 
worked with strings and pulleys, the motive power to be 
that of a man's arms and legs. It appears also that 
later he had very definite ideas as to the possibilities 
of an aerial screw, and he is believed to have constructed 
one of these screws made on the same general plan as 
that of the ordinary type of windmill in use at that time. 
But nothing of practical importance came of any of 
Leonardo's experiments. 

It is probable that his abandonment of the project of 
flying by means of wings worked by muscular force was 
due to the discovery that the strength of the muscles of 
even the strongest man was relatively slight as compared 
with the corresponding muscle of birds. Leonardo was 
peculiarly capable of discerning this discrepancy in 
strength, since he himself was one of the strongest men 

[227] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

of his time. It is said that he could bend and straighten 
horseshoes with his hands. But in his experiments with 
the aerial screw he probably discovered very soon that 
even such muscular force as he was capable of exerting 
was entirely inadequate ; and there being no other mode 
of producing power at that time, the idea of aerial navi- 
gation by this means was also abandoned. 

About this time some imaginative persons, realizing 
the possibilities of muscular development when begun in 
childhood and persistently practiced, attempted the 
development of a race of men whose abnormally strong 
pectoral muscles would enable them to use artificial 
wings for flying. For this purpose a certain number of 
young boys were selected and constantly drilled in ex- 
ercises of flapping the arms, to which broad sails were 
attached. These attempts were persisted in for several 
years, and it is said that some of these boys became so 
expert that by skipping along the surface of the ground 
and vigorously flapping their wing-attachments, they 
could travel at incredible speed, although never able 
actually to rise from the ground. 

In 1678, a Frenchman named Besnier invented a 
flying-machine that is credited with being more success- 
ful than any hitherto attempted. His machine con- 
sisted of two bars of wood which were so hinged to a 
man's shoulders that they could be worked up and down 
by movements of the hands and feet. At the ends of 
these two bars were muslin wings made like shutters, so 
arranged that they were opened by a downward stroke 
and closed automatically by a reverse motion. The 
general appearance presented by these wings was that 

[228] 



NAVIGATING THE AIR 

of four book-covers fastened by their backs to the ends 
of the bars, opening and closing alternately as the bars 
were worked up and down. 

The inventor began his experiments in a modest way. 
His first attempt at flight was by jumping from a chair; 
next he tried a table; and finally, emboldened by his 
success, he made flights from window-sills and even 
house-tops. On one occasion he is said to have sailed 
from his attic window over the roof of a neighboring 
cottage, alighting, without injury, some distance beyond. 
It was even rumored at one time that he would try to 
fly across the Seine, but if such a feat was ever con- 
templated, it was never attempted. 

Half a century later, however, the Marquis de Bacque- 
ville actually made such an attempt with a machine 
somewhat similar to that of Besnier. The marquis 
had practiced in private with his machine with such en- 
couraging results that he felt confident the feat was not 
an impossible one — in fact, that he was sure of accom- 
plishing it. He therefore announced publicly that at a 
certain time the attempt would be made, and on the 
appointed day an immense crowd of people gathered on 
the banks of the river to witness the spectacle. Starting 
from a building some little distance away from the 
stream, the marquis made good progress at first, but just 
as he reached the river-bank his machine collapsed and 
he was tumbled out, alighting on a barge moored at the 
edge of the stream. Fortunately, the only injury he 
sustained was a broken leg; but this single attempt 
seems to have satisfied his aeronautic ambitions. 

Until this time all attempts made at aerial flight had 
[229] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

been those in imitation of birds; but during the early 
part of the eighteenth century the idea of the balloon 
was developed. This was the result of the numerous 
important discoveries made about that time as to the 
qualities of the atmosphere, and also several other 
"airs," as gases were called, such as their expansion 
and contraction under different conditions of tempera- 
ture. 

In 1766 the English philosopher, Henry Cavendish, 
discovered that hydrogen gas has only about one- 
seventh the weight of an equal bulk of air, this scientific 
discovery pointing naturally to balloon construction, 
since obviously if such a light gas were confined in a 
suitable receptacle, the device would rise to a certain 
height through the heavier atmosphere, as a cork rises 
through water. At the same time the experiments of 
the chemist, Dr. Joseph Black, and those of his younger 
contemporary, Doctor Priestly, were directed along the 
same lines, all of them pointing to the possibility of con- 
structing an aerostat with buoyancy and lifting-power, 
and Priestly's Experiments Relating to the Different 
Kinds of Air is said to have been directly responsible 
for stimulating the efforts of Stephen and Joseph Mont- 
golfier, the French paper manufacturers, who finally 
invented and sent up the first balloon. 

Even before Montgolfier's invention, Tiberius Cavallo, 
an Italian living in England, had demonstrated the 
possibility of making toy-balloons. But the balloons of 
Cavallo were small affairs made of bladders or paper 
bags filled with hydrogen gas. One of these materials 
being too heavy and the other too porous for successful 

[230] 



NAVIGATING THE AIR 

balloon construction, the performances of these toy- 
balloons were not conclusively demonstrative. 



THE BALLOON INVENTED 

Throughout the entire spring of 1783, all Auvergne, in 
France, was kept in breathless expectancy by constant 
rumors that the two Montgolfiers had really solved the 
problem of aerial flight, and would soon be seen soaring 
over the country in a strange birdlike machine. Rumor 
pictured this machine in various forms and sizes, but in 
point of fact there was really very little secrecy on the 
part of the inventors themselves, who frankly explained 
the principle of the balloon they were constructing. It 
was hardly to be expected, however, that most persons 
would believe the plain truth that so simple a device as 
a bag filled with hot air would do what had long been 
considered impossible. 

Spring advanced and lapsed into summer, however, 
and as no flying-machine made its appearance, public 
clamor became so loud that the Montgolfiers felt they 
could postpone their demonstration no longer, although 
the balloon they were working on was not completed to 
their entire satisfaction. Nevertheless, they fixed on the 
definite date of June 5, (1783) as the day and Annonay 
as the place for making the trial, and their faith 
in their invention was shown by the fact that special in- 
vitations were sent to the leading persons in the vicinity, 
and a general invitation extended to the world at large. 

But in place of some complicated and birdlike 
machine, as rumor had pictured the flying-machine, the 

[23 1 ] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

multitude that gathered about the starting-point found 
only an immense cloth bag about thirty-five feet in 
diameter, without machinery or wings, and capable of 
containing some twenty-two thousand cubic feet of air, 
which the Montgolfier brothers and their assistants 
were inflating with heated air. As the bag rilled, 
one of the brothers announced with all seriousness, 
that as soon as it was completely filled it would "rise to 
the clouds/ ' carrying with it a frame weighing some 
three hundred pounds. 

This announcement was not received with the same 
seriousness with which it was given. The idea of ex- 
pecting anyone to believe that an ordinary cloth bag 
would fly excited the risibilities even of the more serious 
members of the crowd. Nevertheless, as the great globe 
filled it became evident to the spectators that it was 
tugging at the restraining ropes in efforts to rise, in 
a most extraordinary manner; and when, at a signal 
from the inventors, the ropes were cast off and the 
monster shot skyward, the crowd's smiles were turned 
to expressions of gaping astonishment. Straight into 
the air the monster mounted, and then, wafted by a 
gentle breeze, it continued to soar and rise until in ten 
minutes it had reached an altitude of six thousand feet, 
sailing easily in a horizontal direction for a short dis- 
tance, then gradually descending and alighting some 
eight thousand feet from the starting-point. 

The news of this triumph travelled quickly to Paris, 
and the Parisians clamored to see the wonderful per- 
formance repeated in the capital. The king and court 
were as interested as the savants and the populace, and 

[232] 



NAVIGATING THE AIR 

an order was sent at once by his Majesty, bidding the 
brothers bring their balloon to the city. 

In the meantime, however, a savant named Charles 
had started the construction of a balloon that was to be 
filled with hydrogen gas instead of heated air. This 
was a much more expensive undertaking, as a thousand 
pounds of iron filings and five hundred pounds of sul- 
phuric acid were necessary to manufacture a sufficient 
quantity of gas to fill the varnished silk bag. But by 
the 23rd of August everything was in readiness for the 
filling process, and the following day this first gas- 
balloon rose from the Champs de Mars to a distance of 
three thousand feet and disappeared into the clouds. 
Three-quarters of an hour later it descended in a field 
near the little village of Gonesse, to the great consterna- 
tion of the inhabitants of the neighborhood, who sup- 
posed it to be some monster bird, animal, or flying 
dragon. Arming themselves with scythes and pitch- 
forks, therefore, but keeping at a safe distance, the 
boldest of the peasants sallied out and surrounded the 
field in which the creature had alighted. As it made 
no offensive movement, however, one bold huntsman 
armed with his trusty fowling-piece, crept cautiously 
within range and fired, tearing a hole in the monster's 
side and causing it to writhe and collapse, giving off 
what appeared to be a foul-smelling, poisonous gas in 
its death-struggles. When finally it lay flat and still the 
villagers became emboldened, and rushing upon it cut 
and tore it to shreds, ending the performance by tying 
the fragments to a horse's tail and sending the animal 
scurrying across the fields. 

[233] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

In anticipation of some such demonstration as this, 
the French Government had sent out a proclamation on 
the day of the ascent. " Anyone who should see in the 
sky a globe, resembling the moon in an eclipse, " the 
proclamation ran, "should be aware that far from being 
an alarming phenomenon, it is only a machine, made of 
taffeta, or light canvas covered with paper, that cannot 
possibly cause any harm, and will some day prove 
serviceable to the wants of society." But apparently 
none of the villagers of Gonesse had seen this proclama- 
tion. 

The success of these balloon ascensions sent a wave 
of enthusiastic interest in aeronautics all over France. 
The novelty and possibilities of ballooning appealed to 
the French temperament, just as the possibilities of 
submarine navigation and automobiling did a century 
later. As a result, France became at once the centre 
of ballooning, the whole nation being eagerly absorbed 
in the subject of navigating the air. In the theatre of 
action, the Montgolfiers continued to occupy the centre 
of the stage, and at all times showed themselves worthy 
of the leading role. Pursuant to the order of the king, 
M. Montgolfier had come to the capital, and on Septem- 
ber 19th, before Louis XVI and his queen and the 
court at Versailles, sent up another hot-air balloon, or 
" Montgolfier/' as this kind of balloon had come to be 
called. 

A novel and important feature of this exhibition, how- 
ever, was the substitution of living animals for sand-bags 
or other ballast, as used heretofore. In a wicker cage 
a cock, a duck, and a sheep were fastened, and these 

[ 2 34] 



NAVIGATING THE AIR 

were carried some fifteen hundred feet into the air, 
descending uninjured, two miles from the starting-point, 
a few minutes later. The cage was broken open in the 
descent, but its occupants escaped injury, and the sheep 
was found quietly grazing when the rescue party arrived. 

The successful voyage of these caged animals stimu- 
lated the balloonists to attempt the crucial test of sending 
up a balloon carrying a human passenger. But from 
this perilous undertaking the boldest spirits recoiled, 
even the Montgolfiers refusing to venture. In those 
days, however, there was always a means of securing 
human beings, willing or otherwise, for any undertaking. 
Where gold would not tempt, it needed but a word of 
the monarch to commute the death-sentence of some 
criminal, placing him at the disposal of the scientists 
for a better or worse fate than the gallows, as the case 
might be. And so when Louis XVI heard of the plight 
of the balloon-makers, he came to their assistance with 
the offer of two condemned prisoners to be sent on the 
first aerial voyage. This offer had an unexpected effect. 
The pride of a certain high-minded aeronaut named 
Rozier, who had hitherto refused to risk his life, was 
touched at the thought of criminals performing an act 
that all honest men refused. "What! are vile criminals 
to have the glory of being the first to ascend into the 
air?" he exclaimed. "No, no, that must not be." 
And forthwith he offered his own services for the hazard- 
ous undertaking. 

The royal decree was accordingly repealed, to the 
chagrin of the criminals, no doubt, and preparations 
made for the momentous attempt. Montgolfier was 

[235] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

engaged to construct a large balloon, and on the 15th 
of October, 1783, the trial was made in a garden in the 
Faubourg St. Antoine. Let no one suppose, however, 
that this first man-carrying balloon was cut loose from 
the earth and sent skyward to shift for itself, as might 
be gathered from the reluctance of persons to make the 
ascent. On the contrary, the balloon was held by strong 
cables, and allowed to rise only to a height of eighty feet 
— to the level of some of the lower windows of a modern 
sky-scraper — the aeronaut keeping it afloat for about 
five minutes by burning wool and straw in a grate 
made for the purpose. 

Those who have witnessed the reckless manner in 
which the modern balloonist mounts thousands of feet 
into the air, seated on a trapeze or clinging to flying 
rings attached to an old balloon, patched and frequently 
rotten, may be inclined to sneer at the brave Rozier. 
But it should be remembered that in 1783 people had 
not learned nineteenth-century contempt for altitude. 
Furthermore, no one could tell what might be the effect 
upon the human system of ascending to a great height 
when away from a building or other terrestrial object. 
Fainting, hemorrhages, heart-failure, and death had 
been predicted, and could not be practically refuted. 
In short, it was an absolutely new and untried field; 
and it required far greater courage on the part of Rozier 
to mount eighty feet in a captive balloon than for a 
modern aeronaut to sail thousands of feet skyward. In 
proof of this is Rozier's subsequent record of ascents in 
free balloons, and dangerous voyages, in the last of 
which he lost his life. 

[236] 



NAVIGATING THE AIR 

To France, therefore, belongs the honor of inventing 
the balloon and being first to test it with a human pas- 
senger. On this last point, however, France only eclipsed 
America by a few days. For while the craze for balloon- 
making was at its height in France during the summer 
of 1783, a somewhat similar craze on a small scale had 
started in some of the American cities. Two members 
of the Philosophical Academy of Philadelphia, Ritten- 
house and Hopkins, constructed a peculiar balloon 
having forty-seven small bags inflated with hydrogen 
attached to a car. On November 28th, six weeks after 
Rozier's ascent, this balloon was sent up, with James 
Wilcox, a carpenter of Philadelphia, as passenger. 
Everything was going well with the voyager until he 
suddenly discovered that the wind was wafting him 
toward the Schuylkill River, which so alarmed him that 
in attempting to descend quickly he punctured the bags 
so freely that he came to the ground with considerable 
force, escaping, however, with a dislocated wrist. 

Meanwhile, in Europe, a new danger to balloonists 
had arisen. Fanaticism was rife, particularly in the 
vicinity of Paris, and many members of the cloth were 
tireless in denouncing this " tampering with God's laws 
by invading the inviolability of the firmament. " For- 
tunately, the king took a broader view, and his soldiers 
were supplied freely for protecting balloonists and their 
property; but even with this protection both were 
roughly handled at times. 

By this time England had become aroused; balloon- 
making became popular across the Channel, and some 
new records for time and distance were soon made. 

[237] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

One balloon sent up in London landed in Sussex, forty- 
eight miles away, making the voyage in two hours and a 
half. A few days later a small balloon sent up in Kent 
was blown across the Channel and landed in Flanders. 
But neither of these balloons carried passengers. 

As yet there had been few serious attempts at con- 
structing dirigible balloons, but now Jean-Pierre Blan- 
chard opened a new era of experiments by combining 
an ordinary balloon for obtaining the lifting power with 
wings and rudder. In this balloon there was also placed 
an umbrella-shaped sail interposed horizontally between 
the car and the body of the balloon, which was to act as 
a sort of parachute in case of accident. On the first 
voyage in this balloon Blanchard was to have had for 
companion a Benedictine monk; but as the machine 
began to rise from the ground the monk was seized with 
fear, turned deadly pale, crossed himself, and seemed 
about to collapse. Fortunately at this moment a leak 
was discovered in the balloon and it was accordingly 
lowered for repairs. When these were completed the 
aeronaut decided to dispense with the company of the 
monk, who was only too willing to gratify his wish. 
But just as the car was again ready to start, a stripling 
student from the Military Academy forced his way 
through the crowd, jumped into the car, and announced 
his intention of making the ascent. Being ordered 
from the car by Blanchard, he declared that he had the 
king's license, and when asked to produce it he drew his 
sword, declaring that this was the license he referred to. 
By this time the crowd had lost patience ; some one 
seized the young man unceremoniously by the collar, 

[238] 



NAVIGATING THE AIR 

hauled him from the car, and turned him over to the 
police. 

A few years later particular attention was called to 
this incident by a rumor, which finally grew into a fixed 
belief in France, that the young military student in 
question was none other than the youthful Napoleon 
Bonaparte, then a student at the Academy. Through- 
out the entire reign of the emperor this was the general 
belief, and if it was denied at all by Napoleon, the denial 
was not made with due emphasis. At St. Helena, 
however, the captive emperor finally stated definitely 
that he was not the hero of this escapade, who is now 
known to have been a student by the name of Chambon. 

Nothing of importance came of Blanchard 's first 
attempt at guiding a balloon with rudder and wings, 
except perhaps to emphasize the fact that wings of an 
oarlike type were useless for propulsion; but neverthe- 
less Blanchard soon prepared a somewhat similar 
balloon in which he proposed to steer himself across the 
English Channel. Before this time, as will be remem- 
bered, several balloons had crossed the Channel, but 
none of them had carried passengers. On this voyage 
Blanchard proposed to make the attempt, taking with 
him as companion an American physician named 
Jeffries. On January 7, 1785, these two embarked 
from the cliffs of Dover, a strong wind at the time setting 
toward the French coast. Before their journey was half 
completed they discovered that an insufficient amount of 
ballast had been shipped, and that the balloon was 
gradually descending at a rate which would land them 
in the Channel several miles from shore. To avert this 

[239] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

calamity they were obliged to throw out everything in 
the car — books, provisions, anchors, ropes, the "wings" 
that were intended for guiding, and also most of their 
garments. They were, indeed, about to cut loose the 
car itself, and climb into the shrouds, when suddenly the 
balloon, caught by a fresh current of air, began to rise, 
and was wafted to a safe landing place. This was the 
most daring exploit as yet performed by the aeronauts. 

Although at least fifty different persons had made 
more or less extended aerial voyages during the two 
years that had intervened since the invention of the first 
balloon, no one of them had been seriously injured. 
Indeed, this apparently most dangerous undertaking 
had been relegated to the grade of commonplace in 
popular opinion, owing to these fortunate results. But 
the world was soon to learn that its first estimates of the 
dangers of ballooning had not been exaggerated. 

Since the invention of the Montgolfier balloon two 
distinct schools of balloonists had arisen, one of which 
favored the hot-air, and the other the hydrogen balloon. 
By the advocates of the hot-air balloon it was claimed 
that the relatively small expense, and the fact that the 
balloonist could descend at any time and renew his 
supply of fuel, made this the most desirable type, at 
least for long-distance voyages. By the advocates of 
the hydrogen balloon it was shown that the hot-air 
balloon must be constructed much larger to obtain the 
same amount of lifting power, could be maintained in 
the air for a comparatively short time at most, and was 
in constant danger from the fire that must be kept burn- 
ing in the grate. In reply to this last charge the hot-air 

[240] 



NAVIGATING THE AIR 

advocates pointed out that a tiny spark of electricity, 
which would not affect the hot-air balloon, might 
explode the hydrogen balloon, thus introducing an 
element of danger quite as great as that of the fire in 
the hot-air balloons. 

As an outcome of these disputes, Pilatre de Rozier, 
the first man ever to make an ascent, proposed to 
attempt to cross the Channel in a new- type balloon, a 
combination of hot-air and hydrogen machine, which 
was supposed to represent the good qualities of both 
types. Several months were consumed in constructing 
it, and when finally completed he and a companion 
attempted to cross the Channel, as had been done by 
Blanchard and Jeffries a short time previously. All 
went well at first and the balloon was several miles on 
its journey when suddenly the wind changed, the balloon 
was blown back over the heads of the anxious watchers 
below, and when a short distance inland, suddenly burst 
into flames. At first it descended with an oscillating 
movement, and then, freed from the restraining silk and 
canvas, it shot downward, striking the earth with terrible 
force, the two occupants being killed. Thus the man 
to make the first ascent in a balloon was also the first to 
lose his life. Rozier himself seems to have expected 
some such ending to his voyages, and just before making 
his last ascent he remarked to a friend that, whatever the 
outcome, "one had lived long enough when one had 
added something to humanity.' ' 

The fate of Rozier and his companion being known, 
and the awful dangers of balloon ascensions thus forcibly 
brought home, there was a popular outcry against such 

vol. vii. — 16 [ 241 ] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

attempts and efforts were made to pass laws forbidding 
them. But no such demand or suggestion came from 
the balloonists themselves. They could point to the 
fact that, while as yet the balloon had been of no im- 
portance commercially, it had at least been turned to 
some account in the field of science, which was simply a 
stepping-stone to commerical advancement. It had 
been the means of settling forever the question of tem- 
perature and rarefaction at different altitudes, besides 
numerous less important although no less interesting 
subjects. 

While it was true that many of the experiments of the 
aeronauts had added largely to human knowledge, some 
of them were both dangerous and foolhardy. An ex- 
hibition of this kind of folly was given by the Frenchman, 
Testu-Bressy, who, wishing to test his theory that large 
animals would bleed from the nose at a much lower 
elevation than man, despite the thicker consistency of 
their blood, made an ascent mounted on the back of a 
horse. On this occasion the aeronaut did not even take 
the simple precaution of tying the horse's feet to the car; 
and what seems most remarkable, the animal made the 
journey without moving or showing any sign of fear. 

The time was at hand, however, when Montgolfier, 
who had always maintained that the true usefulness of 
the balloon would be in warfare, was given the oppor- 
tunity of seeing his contention verified. On the break- 
ing out of the French Revolution, balloon corps were at 
once pressed into the service of the army. Napoleon 
Bonaparte carried with him some balloons on his 
Egyptian campaign, partly for the purpose of making 

[242] 



NAVIGATING THE AIR 

observations, and partly to impress the Arabs with the 
superiority of Christian armies. A school of aeronautics 
was established at Meudon, and some fifty young men, 
sworn to secrecy, assigned to it. Balloons were con- 
structed, tested, and distributed among the different 
divisions of the army, and one of these was used for re- 
connoitering the position of the Austrian forces just 
before the battle of Fleurus. In the course of the day 
two ascents were made in this balloon, which was held 
captive by several thousand feet of cable. The second 
ascent drew the fire of the enemy's cannon, but the 
range was too great and no harm was done. Mean- 
while the French general, Jourdain, was furnished most 
valuable information by these aerial voyages. 

The Revolutionary wars were also responsible, in- 
directly, for the invention of the parachute. It will be 
recalled that even as early as the fifteenth century, 
Leonardo da Vinci had conceived the idea of a kind of 
parachute; and that Blanchard had a spread-canvas 
arrangement to produce a similar effect attached to some 
of his balloons. It was not until 1799, however, that 
the folding umbrella-like parachute was invented, the 
inventor, Garnerin, having developed the idea in trying 
to devise some means of escape from the fortress of 
Buda, Hungary, where he was being kept prisoner after 
one of the battles in the North between the Revolution- 
ary forces and the Austrians and Prussians. Although 
he did not actually effect his escape in this dramatic 
manner, he finally proved that he had not dreamed in 
vain during his imprisonment by demonstrating the 
entire practicality of the parachute. 

[243] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

Garnerin's first practical test of his invention was 
made in October, 1797, when he ascended to the height 
of six thousand feet in a balloon to which was attached 
a parachute of the ordinary umbrella type still used. 
At that altitude he cut loose the balloon which rushed 
upward until it exploded, while the parachute, dropping 
rapidly at first, finally settled slowly and gently to the 
earth, without injury to the inventor. 

PROGRESS IN MECHANICAL PLIGHT 

The attempts at navigating a balloon having proved 
thus far so unsuccessful, many inventors now returned 
to the idea of producing a flying-machine which was in- 
dependent of the inflated balloon. It was evident that 
the resistance presented by the great surface necessary 
in a balloon of sufficient size to have the required lifting 
power was such that no known efforts of propulsion 
could overcome this resistance even in the face of a 
slight breeze, to say nothing of a strong wind. The 
balloon was by no means abandoned, however, and two 
definite schools of aeronauts gradually came into exist- 
ence, each having ardent advocates. 

As early as 1784, the aeronaut Gerard had proposed 
a flying-machine whictuwas to be made with body, wings, 
and steering apparatus, in which propulsion was to be 
accomplished by the use of escaping gas and gun-cotton. 
The inventor himself was so sanguine of the results, and 
so many contemporary inventors were of the same opin- 
ion, that when this machine proved to be an utter failure, 
the blow to the advocates of the flying-machine was so 

[244] 



NAVIGATING THE AIR 

great that they did not rally from it for something like a 
quarter of a century. In 1809, however, a Viennese 
watchmaker named Degen revived interest in attempts 
at mechanical flight by inventing a flying-machine which 
consisted essentially of two parachutes. These were 
worked by hand, and the inventor was said to have been 
able to rise to a height of over fifty feet from the ground 
" moving in any desired direction." 

These claims were not borne out in fact, but they 
stimulated an interest in the possibilities of mechanical 
flight, and in the parachute, which had never come into 
popular favor despite its successful use by the inventor, 
Garnerin. Hopes were again entertained that a modi- 
fication of this device might be utilized in solving the 
problem of aerial flight, and in 1837 an aeronaut, Henry 
Cocking, invented a new type in which he proposed tc 
descend from a balloon. The parachute of Garnerin, 
as we know, had been constructed like a huge umbrella, 
whereas Cocking's parachute had the general appear- 
ance of an umbrella held upside down. An unusual 
interest was aroused in the prospective experiment from 
the fact that a great majority of scientists did not con- 
sider that this parachute was constructed on correct 
scientific principles, and predicted that the aeronaut 
would be killed when he attempted to use it. Before 
the day of the trial arrived numerous articles had been 
published, presenting arguments for and against Cock- 
ing's device, and on the very day itself one of the news- 
papers contained a long article by a leading authority 
on aerostatics, reviewing the numerous reasons why the 
attempt would surely prove a failure. 

[245] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

Despite the protests of the majority of interested 
persons, however, Cocking and a companion named 
Green made the ascent at the appointed time. After 
rising to a certain height the parachute was cast off, the 
parachute's car containing the inventor, while Green 
remained in the balloon. Instead of sailing slowly 
toward the earth, however, the parachute fell rapidly, 
with an oscillating movement, gaining speed and jerking 
violently as it descended, until finally when several 
hundred feet in the air, Cocking was thrown from the 
car and dashed to pieces, while the wreck of the para- 
chute landed a few yards away. Thus the predictions 
of the majority came true, although as we know now, the 
cause of the tragedy was due to faulty material rather 
than the design of the machine. For the American 
aeronaut, Wise, demonstrated a little later that para- 
chutes built on the same principle as that of Cocking 
could be used successfully. 

As we have seen, most of the flying-machines attempt- 
ed heretofore took for their model the bird with flapping 
wings. There were certain persons, however, who had 
observed that this flapping movement was not essential 
to flight — that certain large-winged birds, such as buz- 
zards and hawks, were able to soar in any direction at 
will, holding their wings rigidly. It was evident, there- 
fore, that shape, position, and construction of the bird's 
wing played quite as important a part as the flapping 
movement. The lifting power of plane surfaces, or 
aeroplanes, was also carefully studied in this connection 
and in 1842 the inventor, Henson, constructed a flying- 
machine utilizing this aeroplane principle, his machine 

[246] 



NAVIGATING THE AIR 

having thin, fixed surfaces, slightly inclined to the line of 
motion, and supported by the upward pressure of the 
air due to the forward movement. 

Everyone will remember the distance to which a skil- 
ful juggler can project an ordinary playing-card by 
giving it a certain inclination in throwing. It will 
travel upward or on a level, and continue this direction 
until the force of the movement of throwing is exhausted. 
Obviously, if this force were self-contained in the card — 
if it could continue rotating and moving forward — it 
could fly indefinitely. Henson had studied and ex- 
perimented with these miniature aeroplanes, and was 
convinced that if the same principle that governed their 
flight were to be applied to larger machines, practical 
flying-machines could be made. 

"If any light and flat, or nearly flat, article," he wrote, 
"be projected edgeways in a slightly inclined position, 
the same will rise on the air till the force exerted is ex- 
pended, when the article so thrown or projected will 
descend; and it will readily be conceived that if the 
article possessed in itself a continuous power or force 
equal to that used in throwing or projecting it, the article 
would continue to ascend so long as the forward part of 
the surface was upward in respect to its hinder part, and 
that such article, when the power was stopped, or when 
the inclination was recovered, would descend by gravity 
only if the power was stopped, or by gravity, aided by 
the force of the power contained in the article, if the 
power be contained, thus imitating the flight of a bird." 

But when Henson attempted to fly in his elaborately 
planned and constructed flying-machine, it proved a 

[247] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

complete failure. It showed a tendency to rise, but its 
lifting power was insufficient for the weight of the engine 
driving the propellers. It was evident, however, that if 
the power of the engine could be sufficiently increased, 
or, what amounts to the same thing, its weight sufficiently 
lightened, a machine built on the aeroplane prin- 
ciple could be made to fly. But at that time the lightest 
type of engine was a crude, heavy machine, and for the 
moment nothing more was attempted in producing a 
mechanical flying-machine propelled by steam. 

Meanwhile the possibility of producing a dirigible 
balloon was again brought into prominence by the sug- 
gestion of two aeronauts, Scott and Martainville, to 
change the shape of the envelope of the balloon. Hither- 
to, all balloons had been made globular or pear-shaped — 
shapes that offered great resisting surfaces to the atmos- 
phere. Now it was proposed to make them in the form 
of long, horizontal cylinders, with pointed ends, these 
cigar-shaped, or boat-shaped balloons offering much 
less resistance. But here, as in the case of the flying- 
machine, engines that were sufficiently strong to work 
the propellers were found to be too heavy for the balloon 
to lift. Meanwhile the aeroplane idea was brought into 
prominence from an unexpected quarter. 

Among the numerous observers in the middle of the 
century who had noted the soaring power of birds, was 
a French sea-captain named Le Bris. On his long 
voyages he had studied the movements of the great 
albatross, which, with wings rigidly distended, outsailed 
the swiftest ship without any apparent exertion. Anxious 
to study the wing-mechanism of this bird, the captain, 

[248] 



NAVIGATING THE AIR 

overcoming the scruples of the mariner against killing 
the sacred sea-rover, shot one of the birds. On remov- 
ing a wing and spreading it in the wind he thought that 
it had a very appreciable tendency to pull forward into 
the breeze, and tended to rise when the wind was strong. 
Convinced that by duplicating the shape of the bird he 
could construct a successful flying-machine, Le Bris set 
to work and succeeded in producing a most remarkable 
"air-ship." 

The body of this machine, which was supposed to 
correspond to the body of the bird, was made boat- 
shaped, and was about thirteen feet long and four feet 
wide, being broadest at its prow, in imitation of the 
breast of the bird. The front part was decked over, 
something like the bow of the modern torpedo-boat, 
and through this deck protruded a small mast which 
was used for supporting the pulleys and cords used in 
working the machinery of the wings. Each wing was 
about twenty-five feet long, so that the entire spread of 
the machine was fifty feet. There was a tail-like 
structure so hinged that it could be used for steering up, 
down, and side wise, the total area of surface presented 
to the atmosphere being something over two hundred 
square feet, although the entire "albatross" weighed 
something less than a hundred pounds. 

The front edges of the wings were made of pieces of 
wood fashioned like the wings of the albatross, and 
feathers were imitated by a frame structure covered 
with canton flannel. The front edges of the wings 
could be given a rotary motion to fix them at any desired 
angle by an ingenious device worked by two levers. In 

[249] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

operating this artificial bird the captain proposed to 
stand in the boat and control its flight by these sets of 
levers and by balancing his body. 

Having full confidence in the ability of his invention 
to soar once it had been given an initial velocity, the 
captain selected a morning when a good breeze was 
blowing and hired a cart-driver to carry him out into 
the neighboring fields. The machine was placed hor- 
izontally upon the cart and fastened to it with a rope 
which could be loosened by the pulling of a slip-knot 
held by the captain, who took his position in the boat. 
On reaching the open country the driver put his horse 
into a brisk trot when, the levers controlling the wings 
being set, the machine rose gracefully into the air and 
travelled forward a distance of perhaps a hundred yards. 
At this moment the running-rope in some unaccountable 
manner became wound about the body of the driver, 
hauling him unceremoniously from his seat, and dan- 
gling him writhing and shrieking at the end of the rope, 
several feet above the ground. As it happened, his 
weight was just sufficient to counterbalance the wind, 
so that acting in the capacity of the tail of a kite, he 
assisted materially, if involuntarily, in keeping the 
artificial bird in flight. 

When the captain became aware of what was going 
on below, he altered the angle of the wings and came 
slowly to the earth, descending without accident either 
to himself or to his machine. All things considered, 
this was a remarkable performance, and it was so con- 
sidered by people in the neighborhood, who made a hero 
of the gallant mariner. His next attempt, however, 

[250] 



NAVIGATING THE AIR 

was less successful. Something went wrong with the 
machine shortly after starting, landing the inventor in a 
stone-quarry with a broken leg and a shattered machine. 
This accident also shook the courage of the captain, 
and for several years he made no more attempts at 
flight, confining his attention to sailing a coasting- vessel. 
But his faith in his "albatross" never wavered, even if 
his courage did for a time, and in 1867 he began build- 
ing a more elaborate machine, aided by public subscrip- 
tions. The outlook for this new device seemed very 
promising, several fairly successful flights of perhaps 
two hundred yards having been made, when a sudden 
gust of wind catching up the machine one day during 
the momentary absence of the inventor, dashed it to 
pieces upon the ground. This was the final blow to the 
hopes of Captain Le Bris, who made no further at- 
tempts, his means and his energies being entirely 
exhausted. 

GIFFARD, "THE FULTON OF AERIAL NAVIGATION" 

Meanwhile the advocates of the dirigible balloon had 
not remained idle, many of them attempting to utilize 
the principle of the aeroplane in connection with a 
balloon. Some of these machines were of most fantastic 
design, but one in particular, that of Mr. Henri Giffard, 
succeeded so well, and proved to be dirigible to such an 
extent, that Giffard is sometimes referred to by enthusi- 
astic admirers as " the Fulton of aerial navigation." In 
principle, and indeed in general appearance, this 
balloon was not unlike some of the balloons built by 
Santos-Dumont fifty years later. It had the now- 

[251] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

familiar cigar shape, common to most modern dirigible 
balloons; and beneath was suspended a car carrying a 
steam-engine that worked a screw propeller. The 
rudder, placed at the stern just below the balloon in a 
position corresponding to the rudder of a ship, was a 
large canvas sail set in a frame. The envelope of the 
balloon was one hundred and fifty feet long and forty 
feet in diameter and contained about ninety thousand 
cubic feet of coal-gas. To lessen the danger of igniting 
this from the engine, Giffard arranged the chimney so 
that it pointed downward, and suspended it some forty 
feet below the envelope. 

On September 24, 1852, he rose from the Paris Hip- 
podrome, and succeeded in making a headway of from 
five to seven miles an hour in the face of a strong wind. 
In response to the rudder his balloon performed some 
difficult evolutions, turning right or left at the will of 
the operator. He continued his maneuvers for some 
time, and then extinguishing his fire, opened the valve 
and returned safely to the ground. This was a great 
victory for the advocates of the dirigible balloon, and 
was indeed a performance that has not until recently 
been surpassed in the fifty years that have intervened 
since that time. But despite this initial success, Giffard 
soon renounced the field of aeronautics, and no worthy 
successor appeared to take his place for more than a 
quarter of a century. 

THE VOYAGES OF THE GIANT 

One of the most remarkable balloons ever constructed, 
and one of the most remarkable voyages ever made in 

[252] 



NAVIGATING THE AIR 

any balloon, was that of the mammoth aerostat con- 
structed by the noted Parisian photographer, Nadar, in 
1863. Nadar belonged to the school of aviators who 
opposed the principle of the balloon as against that of 
the aeroplane, and his idea in constructing this leviathan 
balloon was simply for the purpose of raising money so 
that he might build a practical flying-machine, con- 
structed on the aeroplane principle, and which, he de- 
clared, would revolutionize air navigation. The Giant, 
he said, would be. the last balloon ever constructed, as 
thereafter air-ships, made on the principle of the one he 
was about to construct, would supplant balloons entirely. 
His plan was to make the ascent in the Giant from some 
large enclosed field near Paris, and the admission price 
of one franc to be charged for entering the field was 
to supply funds for defraying the expense of building 
the Giant, the surplus to be used in constructing his 
flying- machine. 

In making the Giant twenty-one thousand yards of 
silk were used, the balloon being over two hundred feet 
in height, witha lifting capacity of nine thousand pounds. 
It was built as a double balloon, one within the other, 
this being the idea of the aeronaut, Louis Godard, as a 
means of preserving the excess of gas produced by dila- 
tion at different altitudes, instead of losing this excess 
as was usual with balloons constructed in the ordinary 
manner. But perhaps the most interesting thing about 
this balloon was the structure of the car and its contents. 
Like the ordinary car it was constructed of wicker work, 
but was of the proportions of a small house, being built 
two stories high, with an upper platform like the deck 

[253] 



THE CONQUEST OP TIME AND SPACE 

of a ship, on which the passengers could stand. In 
the two floors below were a saloon, compartments for 
scientific instruments, sleeping-cabins, and practically 
all the conveniences of a small, modern house. In the 
car and suspended about it were wheels, guns, a printing- 
press, cameras, cages of carrier-pigeons, baskets of wine 
and provisions, games, and an "abundant supply of 
confectionery." 

The first ascent was made from the Champs de Mars, 
and twenty-five thousand persons paid the admission 
fee to witness it. This did not by any means represent 
the number of persons on the field, as the barriers were 
broken down in many places early in the day, and a 
majority of the spectators thus gained free admission. 
Fifteen persons made the ascent upon this occasion, 
but instead of making a protracted voyage as intended 
at first, the balloon was brought to the earth at nine 
o'clock in the evening only a few leagues from Paris. 
It is said that this landing was made contrary to the 
wishes of Nadar, but in deference to the opinion of the 
Godard brothers, who believed that the balloon was 
being carried out to sea, whereas, in point of fact it was 
travelling due east, directly away from the Atlantic. 

Three weeks later the second ascent was made, on 
this occasion eight instead of fifteen persons starting on 
the voyage. These were under the immediate com- 
mand of Nadar, whose position was that of the captain 
of a ship on the high seas, and whose authority none 
might presume to question. A set of rules governing 
the conduct of those on board and setting forth ex- 
plicitly the authority of the captain was posted in the 

[254] 



NAVIGATING THE AIR 

cabin, the nature of some of these giving a cue to the 
peculiar attitude of mind of the originator of the scheme. 
For example, it was ordered that " Silence must be 
absolutely observed when ordered by the captain." 
"All gambling is expressly prohibited. " "On landing 
no passenger must quit the balloon without permission 
duly acquired from the captain.' ' 

The ascent was again successful, the balloon travelling 
in a northeasterly direction during the night, all the 
passengers remaining awake and alert, having con- 
stantly in mind the danger of falling into the sea. The 
following morning on descending to a lower altitude 
through the clouds, the voyagers found that they were 
passing the border of Holland, near the sea. At this 
point an attempt was made to land, but a violent gale 
having arisen, the anchor cables were broken, and the 
car was dragged along the surface of the ground at 
terrific speed, striking and rebounding into the air, 
dragging through marshes and rivers, bruising and 
battering the occupants who were unable either to leave 
the balloon or to check its flight. As they were whirling 
across the country in this manner an immense forest 
came into view directly in their path, and believing that 
when this was reached every occupant of the car would 
be dashed to pieces against the trees, they decided to 
take their chances by leaping. One after another they 
jumped, striking the earth and turning over and over, 
breaking bones, and mangling faces and bodies. The 
only female occupant of the car, Mrs. Nadar, was for- 
tunate in alighting in a river without serious injury. 
Others received only slight bruises or a severe jolting 

[255] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

while the most unfortunate, M. St. Felix, had a broken 
arm, a dislocated ankle, and numerous cuts and 
bruises. 

Later the Giant was captured many miles farther on 
and returned to its owners in Paris. Subsequently it 
made numerous voyages, none of which was particularly 
profitable, however, so that the purpose for which it 
was designed was not fulfilled, and Nadar's proposed 
air-ship was never constructed. 

While the Giant was the largest balloon hitherto 
constructed, it broke no records either for speed attained 
or distance travelled, and much more notable perform- 
ances in this respect had been made before its time and 
have been made since. Thus, one of Coxwell's balloons 
traveled from Berlin in the direction of Dantzig, cover- 
ing the distance of one hundred and seventy miles in 
three hours. This was in 1849; an d in the same year 
M. Arban crossed the Alps from Marseilles to Turin, 
covering the distance of four hundred miles in eight 
hours. In July, 1859, the American aeronaut, John 
Wise, sailed from St. Louis, Missouri, to Henderson, in 
New York State, in nineteen hours, travelling eight 
hundred and fifty miles at the rate of forty-six miles an 
hour. This was the longest voyage ever made until 
the time of the balloon-races started from the Paris 
Exposition, in 1900. On this occasion Conte de la 
Vaux, starting from Paris, remained in the air thirty- 
five hours and forty-five minutes, landing at Korosticheff, 
in Russia, 1193 miles from the starting-point, thus break- 
ing all previous records. 

[256] 



NAVIGATING THE AIR 

EARLY WAR-BALLOONS AND DIRIGIBLE BALLOONS 

Despite the fact that the "aviators" — the aeronauts 
whose efforts were directed to flight by mechanical 
means in imitation of birds, or by the use of what are 
now called aeroplanes — were in the field centuries before 
the balloon was invented, from the time of the first 
Montgolfier balloon until very recently, the balloonists 
had shown their rivals a clean pair of heels in practical 
results. A dirigible, man-carrying balloon that can be 
guided under favorable conditions, and can maintain 
itself in the air for any considerable length of time, was 
an accomplished fact at least five years before the prac- 
tical aeroplane flying-machine. Yet the majority of 
scientists had become convinced several years before 
their convictions were verified by actual demonstration, 
that some type of mechanical flying-machine — a 
machine that is heavier than the atmosphere and that 
maintains itself by some mechanical means — was the 
only one likely to solve the question of aerial flight. 
Yet thus far balloons have rendered more actual service 
to man than flying-machines. 

It will be recalled that balloons were used for making 
military observations during the French Revolution; 
and they were used for similar purposes in several of the 
Continental wars during the first half of the nineteenth 
century. After that time, however, interest in their 
use for this purpose flagged somewhat until the time 
of the Crimean War, when their usefulness was again 
demonstrated, as it was in the American Civil War 
which followed shortly after. 

VOL. VII.— 17 [ 2 57] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

But it was not until the Franco-Prussian War that 
the one thing for which the Montgolfiers had predicted 
their usefulness in warfare — that of sending messages 
out from a closely besieged city — was put to practical 
test. During the siege of Paris by the Germans in 
1870-71, when every other possible means of communica- 
tion had been cut off, the Parisians still kept in com- 
munication with the outside world by means of balloons 
and carrier-pigeons. On September 23rd, the first 
ascent of the siege was made by the aeronaut Durouf, 
who carried a large number of despatches from the city, 
landing near Evreux, after being in the air about three 
hours. The success of this journey and several others 
that quickly followed led the French Government to 
establish a regular balloon-post, and to undertake the 
manufacture of balloons for this purpose. The mere 
matter of balloon construction offered no difficulty but 
a more serious one was met in the lack of experienced 
aeronauts. In this emergency, however, it occurred to 
the authorities that sailors, accustomed to climbing 
about at dizzy heights, might be taught to take the place 
of trained aeronauts. This experiment proved most 
successful, and in subsequent voyages these mariners 
maintained their reputation for daring undertakings. 
Between September and January sixty-four balloons 
were sent up, all but seven of which fulfilled their mission 
and delivered their despatches; and the total number 
of persons leaving Paris in balloons during the siege 
was one hundred and fifty-five. These carried with 
them a total of nine tons of despatches and something 
like three million letters, the speed with which these 

[258] 



NAVIGATING THE AIR 

journeys were made ranging from a minimum of twenty 
miles an hour to a maximum velocity, in one instance, of 
eighty miles. 

Shortly after this balloon-post was established, the 
Germans came into possession of the new Krupp long- 
range rifle, with which they succeeded in bringing down 
several of the balloons. Companies of Uhlans, the 
swiftest cavalry of Germany, scoured the country con- 
stantly, and kept such a sharp lookout that, as the 
German lines were extended, it became difficult for the 
balloons to make their way over them in daylight. 
Night voyages, therefore, became necessary; but natur- 
ally these were extremely dangerous, and many of them 
had dramatic and tragic terminations. One of the 
longest and most famous of these voyages was that of 
the balloon named the Ville d'Orleans, which left Paris 
about midnight of November 24th. As a strong wind 
was blowing from the north at the time, it was hoped 
that the balloon would descend in the vicinity of Tours. 
The first intimation that the voyagers had that there 
was a deviation from this course was the sound of the 
waves breaking against the shore beneath them. At 
this time they were in a thick mist, and it was not until 
some time after daybreak that this mist cleared away 
sufficiently for them to get an idea of their surroundings. 
Then they found, to their horror, that they were over 
a large body of water, out of sight of land, in what part 
of the world they had not the slightest idea. The 
balloon appeared to be drifting rapidly, and from time 
to time they passed over vessels, which were frantically 
signaled by the voyagers. No notice was taken of these 

[259] 



THE CONQUEST OP TIME AND SPACE 

signals except by one vessel, which responded by firing 
several shots which went wide of the mark. The 
balloon continued on its course northward until late in 
the day when land was sighted lying to the northeast. 
By this time the ballast in the car had been entirely 
expended, and the balloon, which had been sinking 
gradually for several hours, seemed about to plunge into 
the ocean. In this extremity a heavy bag of despatches 
was thrown out, and the balloon thus lightened again 
rose to a considerable height, where another current of 
air carried it over the land. 

A successful landing was made in Norway, in a deso- 
late but friendly region, where the balloonists were 
treated with the greatest kindness. The balloon and 
its contents were subsequently secured, and all the de- 
spatches delivered to their proper destinations, except, 
of course, the one package that had been thrown out as 
ballast. 

A week after the eventful voyage of the Ville ^Or- 
leans a still more unfortunate ascent was made by a 
sailor named Prince, in the balloon called the Jacquard. 
As the ropes releasing this balloon were cut, the en- 
thusiastic mariner, standing in his car and extending 
his hand toward the crowd, shouted dramatically, "I 
go upon a great voyage I" He did — and on one much 
greater than he anticipated — for the balloon was blown 
out to sea and lost. As he was passing over England 
after successfully crossing the Channel, he threw out his 
package of despatches, but this so lightened his balloon 
that it mounted quickly and was soon far out over the 
Atlantic. It was never heard of again. But the life of 

[260] 



NAVIGATING THE AIR 

the enthusiastic voyager was not given in vain, for most 
of the despatches eventually reached their destination. 

Although, as has been seen, the balloons sent out of 
Paris were not of the dirigible kind, and were entirely 
dependent upon the caprice of the winds, they fulfilled 
their missions quite as well as could be expected under 
the circumstances. In fact, there was small chance of 
failure, starting as they did from a central point, and 
being almost certain of success no matter what direction 
was taken, except, indeed, the one that would blow them 
over the German frontier. But the other part of the 
problem — the sending of balloons from the outside into 
Paris — was an entirely different proposition. So differ- 
ent, and so difficult, in fact, that it was never accom- 
plished, although attempted several times. 

But the millions of people in Paris, shut off com- 
pletely from the outside world, were just as anxious to 
receive news as to send it. In attempting to establish 
communication from without, therefore, one balloon leav- 
ing the city in the early days of the siege, carried with it 
some trained dogs in the hope that they would make their 
way back to the city through the German lines. But 
either they lost their way, or were captured by the enemy, 
for nothing was ever heard of them after starting on the 
return trip. In this extremity the members of the 
"Societe Colombophile " came forward with the offer 
of the use of their homing-pigeons. The society had a 
large number of these birds, trained to return to their 
cotes from long distances, and the experiment of send- 
ing return despatches with them was tried at once. Three 
birds were first sent out in one of the despatch-balloons, 

I261] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

and within sixteen hours after starting these had all re- 
turned to the capital, bearing despatches. During the 
next few days a score more pigeons were sent out, eigh- 
teen of which returned safely with their messages; and 
thereafter a regular pigeon-post was organized. 

As the weight that a pigeon is able to carry in its 
flight is extremely small, microscopic photography was 
resorted to, so that, although each bird carried only a 
single quill in which were rolled thin collodion leaves, 
the whole weighing only fifteen grains, the amount of 
printed matter thus carried was sometimes more than 
is contained in an ordinary volume. 

By photographic methods, thirty-two thousand words, 
or about half an ordinary volume, were crowded upon a 
pellicule two inches long by one and one-quarter inches 
wide, and weighing about three-quarters of a grain! 
Twenty of these, representing six thousand words, or 
twice the amount of printed matter contained in such a 
book as Scott's Ivanhoe, or Prescott's Conquest of 
Mexico, were carried by each pigeon. One bird carried 
forty thousand complete messages on a single trip. 

When the bird arrived at its cote, the quill was secured 
and taken to the government office, where the little 
leaflets were carefully removed, placed in an enlarging 
optical apparatus, thrown upon a screen with a magic 
lantern, and copied. The messages were then dis- 
tributed to their destination about the city. 

THE DIRIGIBLE BALLOON ACHIEVED 

By this war, France, the home of the balloon, was 
brought keenly to realize the advantages and the limita- 

[262] 



NAVIGATING THE AIR 

tions of such flying-machines; and it was but natural, 
under the circumstances, that as soon as peace was 
restored, efforts should be made there to produce a dirigi- 
ble balloon, or some other form of dirigible flying- 
machine. Giffard, as we have seen, had been fairly 
successful; and now M. Dupuy de Lome, chief naval 
constructor of France, took up the problem. He con- 
structed a balloon with a cigar-shaped envelope one 
hundred and twenty feet long and fifty feet in diameter. 
Beneath this was a rudder placed in the same position 
as that of a ship ; and suspended still further below was 
a large car fitted with a two-bladed screw-propeller, 
thirty feet in diameter. Manual labor was to be used 
for turning this screw, two relays of four men each re- 
lieving each other at the work. An ascent was made in 
February, 1872, with fourteen persons in the car, who, 
by working in relays, demonstrated that a speed of about 
seven miles an hour could be maintained in any direc- 
tion in still air. As the wind was blowing about thirty 
miles an hour at the time, however, the course of the 
balloon could only be deflected, and the main object of 
the ascent — the return to Paris — could not be accom- 
plished. In short, De Lome's balloon demonstrated 
little more than had been accomplished by Giffard with 
his steam-driven balloon. Both had shown that with 
sufficient power the balloon could be made to travel in 
any direction in still air, but neither had been able to 
make headway against a strong wind. 

It was estimated at the time of Dupuy de Lome's 
ascent, that had a steam-engine of a weight correspond- 
ing to that of the eight workmen been used, at least 

[26 3 E1 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

twice the power could have been obtained. But steam 
was considered too dangerous, and some other motive 
power which combined lightness with power seemed 
absolutely essential. The electric motor gave promise 
of success in this direction, and in 1883 the two Tis- 
sandier brothers in France applied such a motor to a 
balloon that was able to make headway against a seven- 
mile breeze, but was still far from fulfilling the require- 
ments of an entirely dirigible balloon. Two years later 
the motor-driven balloon La France, of Renard and 
Krebs, attained a speed of fourteen miles an hour, and 
showed a distinct advance over all preceding models. 

Meanwhile motors were being reduced in weight and 
increased in power, and the hearts of aviators and 
balloonists were cheered by the fact that the light metal, 
aluminum, was steadily growing cheaper. Visions of 
an all-aluminum balloon were constantly before the 
minds of the inventors, and in 1894 such dreams took 
practical form in a balloon whose construction was 
begun by Herr Schwartz, under the auspices of the 
German Government. This balloon was of most com- 
plicated construction, depending for its lifting power 
upon the gas-filled aluminum tank, but utilizing for its 
steering-gear many of the features of the aeroplane. 
It was essentially a balloon, not a flying-machine, how- 
ever, with a ten to twelve horse-power benzine-engine 
actuating four propelling screws. 

Before the balloon was completed Herr Schwartz 
died, but his plans were known to his wife, and, although 
considerably altered, were carried to completion. When 
all was finished, Herr Jaegels, an engineer who had had 

[264] 




TWO FAMOUS FRENCH WAR BALLOONS. 

The lower figure the dirigible war balloon "La Patrie," which manceuvered 
on the Eastern boundary of France, and which was blown away and lost — taking 
a northwesterly direction which probably landed it ultimately in the Arctic Sea — 
in 1908. The upper figure represents M. Deutsch's dirigible balloon "Ville de 
Paris" which was sent to the frontier to take the Dlace of the lost " Patrie." 



NAVIGATING THE AIR 

no experience as an aeronaut, volunteered to make an 
ascent and this metal ship-of -promise was launched. 
At first it rose rapidly and appeared to be making good 
progress against a strong wind; but suddenly it stopped, 
descended rapidly, and was smashed to pieces, the 
aeronaut saving himself by jumping just before it 
touched the ground. It developed later that he had 
lost control of the machine, simply because the machin- 
ery was too complicated for a single operator to handle. 
On discovering this, Herr Jaegels, confused for the 
moment, threw open the valve, causing the balloon to 
descend too rapidly. Thus the fruit of years of study 
and labor and the expenditure of fifty thousand dollars 
in money resulted in only about six minutes of actual 
flight. 

To most persons this experiment of the aluminum 
balloon would seem to have been a dismal failure, but 
it was not so regarded by the advocates of the dirigible 
balloon. The flight of the balloon, to be sure, was far 
from a success; but this was attributed to improper 
management rather than to any inherent defect in the 
balloon itself, or in the principle upon which it was 
constructed. Instead of being discouraged, there- 
fore, the school of balloonists, who had lost some of 
their prestige of late by the performances of the flying- 
machines of Maxim and Langley, undertook, through 
their enthusiastic representative, Count Zeppelin, the 
construction of the largest, most expensive, and most 
carefully built dirigible balloon heretofore constructed. 
This balloon was of proportions warranting the name 
of " air-ship." The great cigar-shaped body was al- 

[265] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

most four hundred feet in length, and thirty feet in 
diameter — the proportions of a fair-sized ocean liner — 
and like the hull of its ocean prototype, was divided 
into compartments — seventeen in number, and gas- 
tight. Its frame- work was of aluminum rods and wires, 
and the skin of the envelope was made of silk, coated 
with india-rubber. It was equipped with four alumi- 
num screws, and two aluminum cars were placed be- 
low the body at a considerable distance apart. The 
motive power was supplied by benzine motors, selected 
because of their lightness. 

The company for constructing this balloon was cap- 
italized at about two hundred thousand dollars, the cost 
of the shed alone, which rested on ninety-five pontoons 
on the surface of the lake of Constance, near the town 
of Manzell, being fifty thousand dollars. July 2nd, 1910, 
the count and four assistants in the cars, started on the 
maiden voyage. The balloon rose and made headway 
at the rate of eighteen miles an hour, responding 
readily to the rudder, but soon broke or deranged 
some of the steering-gear so that it became unmanage- 
able and descended at Immerstaad, a little over three 
miles from the starting-point. Considering the amount 
of thought, care, and money that had been expended 
upon it, its performance could hardly be looked upon 
as a startling success. By the advocates of the aero- 
plane principle it was considered an utter failure. 

But while Count Zeppelin was experimenting with 
his ponderous leviathan air-ship, a kindred spirit, the 
young Brazilian, M. Santos-Dumont, was making ex- 
periments along similar lines, but with balloons that were 

[266] 



NAVIGATING THE AIR 

mere cockle-shells as compared with the German monster. 
The young inventor had come to Paris from his home 
in South America backed by an immense fortune, and 
by a fund of enthusiasm, courage, and determination 
unsurpassed by any aerial experimenter in any age. He 
began at once experimenting with balloons of different 
shapes, with screws and paddles, and, perhaps most 
important of all, with the new, light petroleum-motors 
just then being introduced for use on automobiles, 
electricity not having proved a success in aerial experi- 
ments. 

His first balloon, No. i, built in 1898, was devoid of 
any particularly novel features. His No. 2 showed 
some advancement, and his No. J, while a decided im- 
provement, still came far short of answering the require- 
ments of a dirigible balloon. But the young experi- 
menter was learning and profiting by his failures — and, 
incidentally, was having hairbreadth escapes from death, 
meeting with many accidents, and being severely in- 
jured on occasion. 

About this time a prize of one hundred thousand 
francs was offered by M. Deutsch to the aeronaut who 
should ascend from a specified place in a park in Paris, 
make the circuit of the Eiffel Tower, and return to the 
starting-point within half an hour. With the honor of 
capturing this prize as an additional incentive, Santos- 
Dumont began the construction of his fourth balloon, 
the Santos-Dumont No. 4. In this balloon everything 
but bare essentials was sacrificed to lightness, even the 
car being done away with, the aeronaut controlling the 
machinery and directing the movements of the bal- 

1 367 3 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

loon from a bamboo saddle. But an accident soon 
destroyed this balloon, and a fifth was hastily con- 
structed. With this the enthusiastic aeronaut showed 
that he was almost within grasping distance of the prize 
in a series of sensational flights between the first part of 
July and the first week in August. The tower was 
actually rounded, but on the return trip the balloon 
collided with a high building in the Rue Alboni and was 
wrecked, the escape of the aeronaut without a scratch 
being little short of miraculous. 

Nothing daunted, the inventor began the construc- 
tion of Santos-Dumont No. 6 immediately, finishing 
it just twenty-eight days after the construction of 
No. 5. A peculiarity of this balloon was that it was 
barely self-sustaining except when forced through the 
air by the propeller. The long cigar-shaped gas-bag 
was relatively small, and was filled to its limit of capacity 
with gas, while the lifting power was counterbalanced 
by the operator, car, engine, and ballast, so that the 
entire structure weighed practically the same as the air 
it displaced. At the stern was a powerful propeller. 
Obviously, then, if the long spindle-shaped machine 
was tilted upward at the forward end, and the propeller 
started, it would be driven upward; while if the for- 
ward end was lowered the propeller would drive it 
downward. If it was balanced so as to be perfectly 
horizontal, it would be forced forward in a horizontal 
direction. Deflections to right and to left were obtained 
by the ordinary type of vertical rudder; and thus any 
direction could be taken. 

To obtain the desired angle of inclination, Santos- 
[268] 




AN ENGLISH DIRIGIBLE BALLOON. 



The photograph here reproduced gives a very vivid impression of the cum- 
bersome nature of balloons of this modern type, and suggests the difficulties to be met 
in housing them safely when not in use. 



NAVIGATING THE AIR 

Dumont made use of a sliding weight, and with this he 
guided his balloon upward and downward by shifting 
its position. Thus, although this balloon was a veritable 
balloon rather than a " flying-machine" proper, it 
really lacked the one essential common to balloons: 
it would not rise until propelled by mechanical means. 
It lacked the requisite of the flying-machine, however, 
in that it was not "many times heavier than the air." 
After giving this new balloon several preliminary trials, 
which included such exciting incidents as collisions 
with a tree in the Bois du Boulogne, an ofhcial attempt 
was made on October 29th, 1800. Above the heads of 
the gaping thousands, who, to a man, wished the daring 
navigator success, the balloon rounded the tower, and 
in twenty-nine minutes and thirty seconds from the 
moment of starting — thirty seconds less than the 
prescribed time-limit — the trip was successfully ter- 
minated. 

This voyage must be considered as marking an epoch 
in aerial navigation. The dirigible balloon was accom- 
plished. A decided step forward in the conquest of the 
air had been made, although from a practical standpoint 
this step was confessedly a short one. For while No. 
6 could be propelled in any direction under ordinary 
conditions, carrying a single passenger, it was on the 
whole more of a toy ship than a practical sailing-craft. 
Nevertheless, its performance was a decided victory for 
the balloon over the flyingnnachine. No flying-machine 
of whatever type had ever even approached the perform- 
ance of Santos-Dumont No. 6, which had carried a 
man on a voyage in the air, traveling with the wind, 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

against it, and with the wind on either quarter at every 
possible angle at various times during the journey. And 
yet there were few scientists, indeed, if any, who con- 
sidered that the problem of aerial navigation was 
solved; and to a large number Santos-Dumont's per- 
formance seemed little more than an extension of 
Giffard's idea, made possible by improved machinery 
not available half a century ago. To them it was the 
triumph of the energy, skill, and courage of an individ- 
ual, not the triumph of a principle — which, after all, 
is the absolute essential. 

Since the successful performance of Santos-Dumont 
in rounding the Eiffel Tower many other dirigible bal- 
loons have been constructed, not only in America and 
in Europe by various inventors, but by the Brazilian 
aeronaut himself. The most remarkable of these is 
the Zeppelin II, the fifth creation of the indomitable 
Count Zeppelin. In principle and general lines of 
construction this balloon closely resembles the one 
described a few pages back. Its best performance, 
however, is more remarkable. Starting from Lake 
Constance on the night of May 29th, 1909, and sailing 
almost directly northward regardless of air currents, the 
balloon reached Bitterfield, a few miles beyond Leipzig, 
four hundred and bixty-five miles from the starting- 
point, the following evening. Turning back at this 
point, without alighting, it had almost completed its 
return trip, when on coming to the ground for a supply 
of fuel it was injured by collision with the branches of a 
tree. The injury sustained, while delaying and marring 
the voyage, did not prevent the balloon from complet- 

[2703 




ENGLISH (LOWER FIGURE) AND AMERICAN DIRIGIBLE WAR BALLOONS AND A 
WRIGHT AEROPLANE. 

The above figures are introduced on one page for the purpose of comparison 
and contrast. The American balloon is the Baldwin airship. The essential clumsi- 
ness of a lighter-than-air craft, as contrasted with the relative gracefulness and 
manageableness of the aeroplane, is strikingly suggested by this illustration. 



NAVIGATING THE AIR 

ing its eight-hundred-and-fifty mile voyage, and es- 
tablishing a new record for dirigibles. 

This and sundry other flights amply demonstrated 
the dirigibility and relative safety of the balloon under 
varying atmospheric conditions. But the difficulties 
that attend the management of such a craft when not 
high in air were again vividly illustrated when, in April, 
1 910, the Zeppelin II., was totally wrecked while at 
anchor by the force of a gale which it might easily have 
outridden had it been beyond the reach of terrestrial 
obstacles. 



[271] 



X 
THE TRIUMPH OF THE AEROPLANE 

ALTHOUGH the dirigible balloon in the hands 
of Santos-Dumont gained a decisive victory 
over all mechanical methods of flight there- 
tofore discovered, even the inventor himself considered 
it rather as a means to an end, than the end itself. That 
end, it would seem, must be a flying-machine, many 
times heavier than the atmosphere, but able by mechan- 
ical means to lift and propel itself through the air. 
The natural representative of this kind of flying-ma- 
chine, the bird, is something like a thousand times as 
heavy as the air which its bulk displaces. The balloon, 
on the other hand, with its equipments and occupants, 
must necessarily be lighter than air; and as the ordi- 
nary gas used for inflating is only about seven times 
lighter than the atmosphere, it can be readily under- 
stood that for a balloon to acquire any great amount of 
lifting power it must be of enormous proportions. 
To attempt to force this great, fragile bulk of light 
material through the atmosphere at any great rate of 
speed is obviously impossible on account of the resist- 
ance offered by its surfaces. On the other hand, any 
such structure strong enough to resist the enormous 
pressure at high speed would be too heavy to float. 
These facts are so patent that it is but natural to 

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THE TRIUMPH OF THE AEROPLANE 

inquire how the balloonists could ever have expected 
to accomplish flight at more than a nominal rate of 
speed; and, on the other hand, it might be asked, 
naturally enough, how the aviators expected to fly with 
aeroplane machines at least a thousand times heavier 
than the air. In reply, the aviators could point to birds 
and bats as examples of how the apparently impossible 
is easily accomplished in nature; while the balloonists 
could simply point to their accomplished flights as 
practical demonstrations. The aviators could point 
to no past records of accomplishments, but neverthe- 
less they had good ground for the faith that was in them, 
and as we shall see were later to justify their theories 
by practical demonstrations. 

Everybody is aware that there is an enormous dif- 
ference in the lifting power of still air and air in motion, 
and that this power is dependent upon velocity. The 
difference between the puff of wind that barely lifts 
a thin sheet of paper from the table, and the tornado 
that uproots trees and wrecks stone buildings, is one 
of velocity. Obviously, then, moving air is quite a dif- 
ferent substance from still air when it comes to dealing 
with aeronautics. 

One of the most familiar examples of the lifting 
power o£ moving air is that of the kite. An ordinary 
kite is many times heavier than the air and has no 
more tendency to rise in the air than a corresponding 
weight of lead under ordinary conditions. Yet this 
same kite, if held by a string with its surfaces inclined 
to the wind at a certain angle, will be lifted with a force 
proportionate to the velocity of the wind and the size of 

vol. vn.— 1 8 [ 2 73 3 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

the surfaces. On a windy day the kite-flyer holding the 
string and standing still will have his kite pushed up- 
ward into the air by the current rushing beneath its 
surface. On a still day he may accomplish the same 
thing by running forward with the kite-string, thus 
causing the surface of the kite to "slide over" the op- 
posing atmosphere. In short, it makes no difference 
whether the air or kite is moving, so long as the effect 
of the current rushing against the lower surface is 
produced. Obviously, then, if in place of the kite-flyer 
holding the string and running at a certain speed, some 
kind of a motor could be attached to the kite that 
would push it forward at a rate of speed corresponding 
to the speed of the runner, the kite would rise — in short, 
would be converted into a flying-machine. 

Looked at in another way, the action of the air in 
sustaining a body in motion in the air has been com- 
pared by Professor Langley to the sustaining power of 
thin ice, which does not break under the weight of a 
swiftly gliding skater, although it would sustain only a 
small fraction of his weight if he were stationary. 
Supposing, for example, the skater were to stand upon 
a cakd of ice a foot square for a single second ; he would 
sink, let us say, to his waist in the water. On a cake 
having twice the surface area, or two square feet, he 
would sink only to his knees; while if the area of the 
cake is multiplied ten times the original size, he would 
scarcely wet his feet in the period of a second. Now 
supposing the cake to be cut into ten cakes of one 
square foot each, placed together in a line so that the 
skater could glide over the entire ten feet in length in 

[274] 



THE TRIUMPH OF THE AEROPLANE 

one second. It is evident that he would thus distribute 
his weight over the same amount of ice as if the cakes 
were fastened together in a solid piece. 

"So it is with the air," says Professor Langley. 
"Even the viewless air possesses inertia; it cannot be 
pushed aside without some effort; and while the por- 
tion which is directly under the air-ship would not keep 
it from falling several yards in the first second, if the 
ship goes forward so that it runs or treads on thousands 
of such portions in that time, it will sink in proportion- 
ately less degree; sink, perhaps only through a frac- 
tion of an inch." 

It is evident, therefore, that if, at a given speed, the 
horizontal wings of an air-ship would keep it from fall- 
ing more than a fraction of an inch in a second, by 
increasing the speed sufficiently and giving the wings 
an upward inclination, the air-ship instead of falling 
might actually rise. And this, as we shall see presently, 
is just what the flying-machines of Sir Hiram Maxim 
and Professor Langley and of the Wright brothers 
and their imitators did do. 



langley's early experiments and discoveries 

It was while making an important series of experi- 
ments with aeroplanes that Professor Langley made 
the discovery which has since been known as "Langley's 
Law." In effect this law is that while it takes a certain 
strain to sustain a properly disposed weight while 
stationary in the air, to advance the weight rapidly 
takes even less strain than when the weight is station- 

[275] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

ary. Thus, contrary to opinions held until recently, 
and contrary to the rules for land vehicles and ships, 
the strain of resistance of an aeroplane will diminish 
instead of increasing with the increase of speed. Pro- 
fessor Langley proved this remarkable fact with a 
most simple but ingenious device. It consisted of an 
immense "whirling table," driven by an engine, so 
arranged that the end of a revolving arm could be made 
to travel at any speed up to seventy miles an hour. At 
the end of this arm, surfaces disposed like wings were 
placed, and whirled through the two hundred feet 
circumference, until they were supported like kites by 
the resistance of the air. 

A certain strain was, of course, necessary to support 
one of these winglike structures when stationary in 
the air, but, curiously enough, less strain was required 
when it was advanced rapidly. Thus a brass plate of 
proper shape weighing one pound was suspended from 
a pull-out spring scale, the arm of which was drawn out 
until it reached the one-pound mark. When the whirl- 
ing table was rotated with increasing velocity the arm 
indicated less and less strain, finally indicating only an 
ounce when the speed of a flying bird was reached. 
"The brass plate seemed to float on the air," says 
Professor Langley, "and not only this, but taking 
into consideration both the strain and the velocity, it 
was found that absolutely less power was spent to make 
the plate move fast than slow, a result which seemed 
very extraordinary, since in all methods of land and 
water transport a high speed costs much more power 
than a slow one for the same distance." 

[276] 



THE TRIUMPH OF THE AEROPLANE 

These experiments, which destroyed the calcula- 
tions of Newton, long held to be correct, showed that 
mechanical flight was at least theoretically possible, 
indicating as it did that a weight of two hundred pounds 
could be moved through the air at express-train speed 
with the expenditure of only one horse-power of energy. 
Since engines could be constructed weighing less than 
twenty pounds to the horse-power, theoretically such 
an engine should support ten times its own weight in 
horizontal flight in an absolute calm. As a matter of 
fact there is no such thing as an absolute calm in 
nature, air-currents being constantly stirring even on 
the calmest day, and this introduces another element in 
attaining aerial flight that is an all-important one. 
Indeed it has long been recognized that the mechanical 
power for flight is not the only requisite for flying — 
there is, besides, the art of handling that power. 

EXPERIMENTS IN SOARING 

Those who have watched soaring birds sail for 
hours on rigidly extended wings will remember that 
while there is no flying movement, there are certain 
shifts of the rigid body, either to offset some unex- 
pected gust of wind, or to produce movement in a 
desired direction. There is an art of balancing here 
that has become instinctive in the bird by long practice 
which could not be hoped for in the same degree in a 
mechanical device, and which man could hope to ac- 
quire only by practice. But in the nature of the case 
man has little chance to learn this art of balancing in 

[277I 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

the air, and it is for this reason that the many members 
of the balloonist school advocate the inflated bag in 
place of the aeroplane. The argument advanced by 
them is that since man has no chance naturally to ac- 
quire familiarity with balancing in the air, the simplest 
and best way for him to acquire it is by making balloon 
ascensions. When he has acquired sufficient skill he 
can gradually reduce the lifting part of his flying- 
machine, or gas-bag, gradually increasing the aero- 
plane or other means of propulsion and lifting, until 
the balloon part of his device can be dispensed with 
entirely. 

In short, this argument of the balloon advocates is 
comparable to two schools of swimming- teachers, one 
of whom advocates the use of sustaining floats until the 
knack of swimming is acquired, the other depending 
upon the use only of muscular movements and quickly 
acquired skill. In this comparison the aviators have 
all the best of the argument; for it is a common ob- 
servation that persons who attempt to learn to swim 
by the use of floats of any kind acquire that art slowly 
if at all; while those who plunge in boldly, although 
they run more risks, quickly learn the art that seems 
ridiculously easy when once acquired. 

The great German scientist, Helmholtz, after years 
of careful study, finally reached the conclusion that 
man would never be able to fly by his own power alone. 
But, as we have seen, Professor Langley had shown that 
in these mysterious questions pertaining to flight even 
a Newton could be wrong; and why not Helmholtz? 
Otto Lilienthal, also a German, thought that his 

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THE TRIUMPH OF THE AEROPLANE 

fellow-countryman was wrong. For years he had made 
a study of the flight of birds, and his studies had led 
him to the same conclusions that have usually been 
reached by every student of the subject, both before 
and since — that soaring flight, without any flapping 
movement, is possible under certain conditions; that 
curved surfaces can acquire a horizontal motion by 
the action of the wind alone, "when their curvature 
bears a certain relation to their superficies" — in short, 
a relation represented exactly by the wings of birds. 

It was not supposed by Lilienthal, or by any of the 
members of the school of aviators, that simply by 
making a device that reproduced the proportions and 
shape of a bird any person might mount and fly. But 
it was believed that, given such a device, a man might 
learn to fly with practice. Lilienthal, therefore, con- 
structed a flying-machine with correctly curved surfaces 
made of linen stretched over a light wooden frame, the 
total area being about fourteen square yards, and the 
whole machine weighing only about forty pounds. In 
the center was an aperture where the operator was 
stationed, holding the frame in position by his arms. 
Obviously, as no flapping motion in imitation of a 
bird's wings was possible, some other means of giving 
the necessary impetus for horizontal flight was necessary, 
and here again the study of birds suggested a method. 

It is a well-known fact that certain soaring birds can- 
not leave the ground when once they have alighted, ex- 
cept by an initial run to acquire the necessary speed ; and 
every goose hunter is familiar with the manner in which 
these birds run along the surface of water, flapping their 

E279] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

wings and skimming along some distance before they 
acquire sufficient velocity to mount into the air. A de- 
scription of a similar action of an eagle in leaving 
the earth, written by a careful observer a few years ago, 
has become classic. This huntsman had come upon 
an eagle which had alighted upon the sandy banks of 
the Nile, and had fired at it, thus stimulating the 
bird to its utmost energy in getting into flight. Yet 
on examining the foot-marks made in the sand it 
was found that, even under these circumstances, the 
bird had been obliged to run "full twenty yards before 
he could raise himself from the earth. The marks 
of his claws were traceable on the sandy soil, ,, says 
the writer, "as, at first with firm and decided digs, he 
found his way, but as he lightened his body and in- 
creased his speed with the aid of his wings, the imprints 
of his talons gradually merged into long scratches." 

It is evident that if such a master of the art of flying 
as an eagle must thus acquire initial velocity before 
flight is possible, a human novice must do considerably 
more. The method that would naturally suggest 
itself would be that of running down the slope of a 
hillside, and Lilienthal adopted this method, beginning 
his flights by running down the gentle slope of a hill 
against the wind, until the requisite momentum was 
acquired. This was, indeed, a reversion to some of the 
oldest types of flying-machines, but with this differ- 
ence — that it was the result of scientific study. The 
results attained proved that the theory was not vision- 
ary — that scientists had not dreamed and studied 
in vain. For, as little by little the experimenter gained 

[280] 



THE TRIUMPH OF THE AEROPLANE 

experience, he was able to soar farther and farther in his 
birdlike machine, in one flight sailing a distance of 
twelve hundred feet. Under certain favorable wind 
conditions he could sail from a hilltop without the 
initial run, and at times he actually rose in the air 
to a point higher than that from which he started. 

As was to be expected in the very nature of the case, 
Lilienthal found that part of the secret of success lay 
in maintaining his equilibrium and in acquiring the 
faculty of doing this instinctively, as a bird does. But 
he found, like the person learning to ride a bicycle, that 
this was developed by repeated efforts. The action of 
the machine itself was carefully studied, and various 
changes were made in his apparatus from time to time 
as experience suggested them. Among other things, 
feather-like sails, worked by a small motor, were attached 
to the edge of the wings; and two smaller frames 
placed one above the other were tried in place of one 
large frame. And still the operator continued to make 
successful flights in all kinds of winds, sometimes nar- 
rowly escaping disaster, but for three years always 
coming to the ground safely. His confidence increased 
day by day, and as his remarkable performances 
multiplied it seemed as if it would only be a matter of 
time until he would be able to imitate the soaring bird 
and sail almost as he pleased. 

In writing of his experiences when, aL it sometimes 
happened, he found himself practically motionless in 
the air at a point higher than that from which he 
started, he says: "I feel very certain that if I leaned a 
little to one side, and so described a circle, and fur- 

[281] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

ther partook of the motion of the lifting air around me, I 
should sustain my position. The wind itself tends to 
direct this motion; but then it must be remembered 
that my chief object in the air is to overcome the ten- 
dency of turning to the right or left, because I know that 
behind or under me lies the hill from which I started, 
and with which I would come in rough contact if I 
allowed myself to attempt this circle-sailing. I have, 
however, made up my mind, by means of either stronger 
wind or by flapping the wings, to get higher up and 
farther away from the hills, so that sailing round in 
circles, I can follow the strong, uplifting current, and 
have sufficient air-space under and around me to com- 
plete with safety a circle, and lastly to come up against 
the wind again to land." 

Before he was ready to make this attempt, however, 
Lilienthal was killed by a fall caused by a treacherous 
gust of wind which tilted his machine beyond his con- 
trol and hurled him to the ground. 

Again the expectant world of aerial navigators was 
thrown into despondency by the happening of the long 
expected — expected, and yet not expected; for Lilien- 
thal had made so many daring flights under so many 
trying conditions, always managing to alight safely, 
that a feeling of confidence had succeeded that of 
distrust. It was almost like a bolt from a clear sky, 
therefore, when the news was flashed around the world 
that Lilienthal was no more. But science has never yet 
been daunted by the fear of death. Like a well-formed 
battle-line in which the place of the fallen is always 
quickly filled, there is always a warrior-scientist ready 

[282] 



THE TRIUMPH OF THE AEROPLANE 

to sacrifice anything for the cause. And so, although 
Lilienthal was gone, the work he had carried so far 
toward success was continued by others, Chanute and 
Hering, the American " soaring men," and later 
eclipsed by the Wright brothers, who were finally to 
solve the problem. 

THE FLYING MACHINES OF MAXIM AND LANGLEY 

At the same time that Lilienthal was making his 
initial experiments, another champion of the same school 
of aviators was achieving equally successful results 
along somewhat different, and yet on the whole, similar 
lines. Sir Hiram Maxim, the inventor of so many 
destructive types of guns, was devoting much time and 
energy to the construction of a flying-machine. His 
apparatus was of the aeroplane type, but unlike that of 
Lilienthal, Chanute, or Hering, was to be propelled by 
steam-driven screw-propellers. Nor was the apparatus 
he proposed to make a diminutive affair weighing a 
few pounds and capable of lifting only the weight of a 
man. His huge machine weighed in the neighbor- 
hood of four tons and carried a steam-engine that 
developed some three hundred and sixty horse-power 
in the screws. It was two hundred feet in width, and 
mounted on a car track, along which it was to be run 
to acquire the necessary initial velocity before mounting 
into the air. 

On July 31, 1894, this huge machine started on a 
trul spin, carrying a crew of three persons, besides fuel 
and water for the boilers. When a speed of thirty-six 

[283] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

miles an hour on the track had been acquired, the ap- 
paratus lifted itself in the air, and sailed for some dis- 
tance, a maximum flight of over three hundred feet 
finally being made. This experiment demonstrated 
several important things — in fact, solved " three out of 
five divisions of the problem of flight," as Lord 
Kelvin declared. It demonstrated that a flying-machine 
carrying its own propelling power could be made power- 
ful and light enough to lift itself in the air; that an 
aeroplane will lift much more than a balloon of equal 
weight; and that a well-made screw-propeller will 
grip the air sufficiently to propel a machine at a high 
rate of speed. 

Since the two remaining divisions of the five con- 
cerned in the problem of flight had been already solved 
by Lilienthal, it seemed that it only remained for some 
scientist to combine this complete knowledge in the 
proper way to produce a practical flying-machine — 
one that would fly through the air, and continue to fly 
until the power was exhausted. It was not a start- 
ling announcement to the scientific world, therefore, 
when about three years later the news was flashed that 
Prof. S. P. Langley had produced such an apparatus. 

Professor Langley described this really wonderful 
machine, which he called the "aerodrome," as follows: 

"In the completed form there are two pairs of wings, 
each slightly curved, each attached to a long steel rod 
which supports them both, and from which depends the 
body of the machine, in which are the boilers, the en- 
gines, the machinery, and the propeller wheels, these 
latter being not in the position of an ocean steamer, but 
' [284] 




FLYING MACHINES OF THE MONOPLANE TYPE. 

Upper figure, the aeroplane of M. Robert Esnault-Pelterie. Middle figure, 
the aeroplane of M. Bleriot. Lower figure, the Vuia aeroplane, a bat-like ma- 
chine of freakish structure which had no large measure of success. A modification 
of the boat-like machine shown in the upper figure gained celebrity through its 
use by M. Latham in the first attempt (in July, 1909) to fly across the English 
Channel. M. Bleriot's aeroplane as finally developed became a very successful 
flying machine. With its aid M. Bleriot was first to accomplish the feat of flying 
across the English Channel (from Calais to Dover in about 23 minutes) on the 
morning of July 25th, 1909. These pictures are reproduced from the London 
Graphic of January 25 th, 1908. 



THE TRIUMPH OF THE AEROPLANE 

more nearly amidships. They are made sometimes of 
wood, sometimes of steel and canvas, and are between 
three and four feet in diameter. 

"The hull itself is formed of steel tubing; the front 
portion is closed by a sheathing of metal which hides 
from view the fire-grate and apparatus for heating, but 
allows us to see a little of the coils of the boiler and all 
of the relatively large smokestack in which it ends. 
There is a conical vessel in front which is simply an 
empty float, whose use is to keep the whole from sinking 
if it should fall in the water. 

"This boiler supplies steam for an engine of be- 
tween one and one-half horse-power, and, with its fire- 
grate, weighs a little over five pounds. This weight is 
exclusive of that of the engine, which weighs, with all 
its moving parts, but twenty-six ounces. Its duty is 
to drive the propeller wheels, which it does at rates 
varying from 800 to 1,200, or even more, turns a minute, 
the highest number being reached when the whole is 
speeding freely ahead. 

"The rudder is of a shape very unlike that of a ship, 
for it is adapted both for vertical and horizontal steer- 
ing. The width of the wings from tip to tip is between 
twelve and thirteen feet, and the length of the whole 
about sixteen feet. The weight is nearly thirty pounds, 
of which about one-fourth is contained in the machinery. 
The engine and boilers are constructed with an almost 
single eye to economy of weight, not of force, and are 
very wasteful of steam, of which they spend their own 
weight in five minutes. This steam might all be recon- 
densed and the water re-used by proper condensing 

[285] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

apparatus, but this cannot be easily introduced in so 
small a scale of construction. With it the time of flight 
might be hours instead of minutes, but without it the 
flight (of the present aerodrome) is limited to about 
five minutes, though in that time, as will be seen pres- 
ently, it can go some miles ; but owing to the danger of 
its leaving the surface of the water for that of the land, 
and wrecking itself on shore, the time of flight is 
limited designedly to less than two minutes.' ' 

When this flying-machine was put to the actual test 
its performance justified the most sanguine expecta- 
tions; it actually flew as no other machine had ever 
flown before. A number of men of science watched 
this remarkable performance, among others Alexander 
Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, who re- 
ported it to the Institute of France. "Through the 
courtesy of Mr. S. P. Langley, Secretary of the Smith- 
sonian Institution, I have had on various occasions the 
pleasure of witnessing his experiments with aero- 
dromes," wrote Dr. Bell, "and especially the remark- 
able success attained by him in his experiments made 
on the Potomac River on Wednesday, May 6th [which 
led me to urge him to make public some of these results]. 

"On the occasion referred to, the aerodrome, at a 
given signal, started from a platform about twenty 
feet above the water, and rose at first directly in the face 
of the wind, moving at all times with remarkable steadi- 
ness, and subsequently swinging around in large curves 
of, perhaps, a hundred yards in diameter, and contin- 
ually ascending until its steam was exhausted, when at 
a lapse of about a minute and a half, and at a height 

[286] 



THE TRIUMPH OF THE AEROPLANE 

which I judged to be between eighty and one hundred 
feet in the air, the wheels ceased turning, and the 
machine, deprived of the aid of propellers, to my sur- 
prise did not fall, but settled down so softly and gently 
that it touched the water without the least shock, and 
was in fact immediately ready for another trial.' ' 

To most persons, even to the cautious and scientific 
inventor himself, the performance of this, and a second 
aerodrome which flew about three-quarters of a mile, 
seemed to show that the secret of aerial navigation was 
all but fathomed. "The world, indeed, will be supine," 
Langley wrote a short time after the success of his 
flying-machine, "if it does not realize that a new pos- 
sibility has come to it, and that the great universal 
highway overhead is soon to be opened." What could 
be plainer? A machine of a certain construction, 
weighing some thirty pounds, and carrying at that some 
excess of weight, had been able to fly a relatively long 
distance. What easier than to construct a machine 
on precisely similar lines only ten, a hundred, a thou- 
sand times larger, until it would carry persons and cargo, 
and fly across an ocean or a continent ? 

Professor Langley himself, as was most fitting, 
undertook the construction of such a man-carrying 
air-ship. And it was during this undertaking that he 
made the momentous discovery that seemed to oppose 
a question mark to the possibility of flight by the 
aeroplane principle. This discovery was an "unyield- 
ing mathematical law that the weight of such a machine 
increases as the cube of its dimensions, whereas the 
wing surface increases as the square." In other words, 

[287] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

as the machine is made larger, the size of the wings 
must be increased in an alarmingly disproportionate 
ratio. And the best that Professor Langley's man- 
carrying flying-machine could do, after the inventor had 
expended the limit of his ingenuity, was to dive into 
the waters of Chesapeake Bay, instead of soaring through 
the air as its prototype, the aerodrome, had done. 



THE IMPOSSIBLE ACCOMPLISHED 

The plunge of Langley's aerodrome downward into 
the water instead of upward through space as had been 
confidently expected, carried with it the hopes of a 
great number of hitherto enthusiasts, who were now 
inclined to believe that the practical conquest of the air 
was almost as far beyond our reach as it had been be- 
yond that of all preceding generations. Learned 
scientists were able to prove to their own satisfaction, 
by long columns of figures and elaborate mathematical 
calculations, that the air is unconquerable. 

But even as they labored and promulgated these 
conclusions, two unknown men in a little Ohio town, 
discarding all accepted theoretical calculations, and 
combining with their newly created tables of figures a 
rare quality of practical application and unswerving 
courage, had accomplished the impossible. Wilbur 
and Orville Wright — two names that must always be 
linked with those of Fulton and Stephenson, only 
possibly on a higher plane as conquerors of a more 
subtle element — were at that very time making flights 
in all directions at will through the air in their practical 

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THE TRIUMPH OF THE AEROPLANE 

flying-machine. While others caviled and doubted, 
these two modest inventors worked and accomplished ; 
until presently they were able to put in evidence a 
mechanism that may perhaps without exaggeration be 
regarded as the harbinger of a new era of civilization. 

The interest of these two brothers in the fascinating 
field of air navigation was first excited when, as boys, 
their father, a clergyman, brought home for their amuse- 
ment the little toy known to scientists as a "helicoptere," 
which, actuated by twisted rubbers that drive tiny 
paper screws in opposite directions, actually rises and 
flutters through the air. "A toy so delicate lasted only 
a short time in the hands of small boys, but its memory 
was abiding " the inventors themselves have tersely 
said. So abiding, indeed, that a few years later they 
began making similar "bats," as they had dubbed the 
machines. 

Soon they discovered that the larger the machine 
they made the less it flew, and in pondering this fact 
they gradually evolved for themselves the theory 
which is now known as Langley's unyielding mathe- 
matical law, referred to a few pages back. The prob- 
lem of human flight had not been considered by them 
at this time, and it was not until the news of LilienthaPs 
death startled the world that they entered the field of 
invention in earnest. Then they began constructing 
gliding machines, modifications of those of Lilienthal 
and Chanute, and began making long flights, studying 
defects and overcoming adverse conditions as they 
presented themselves. 

By 1 90 1, they had surpassed the performances of all 

VOL. VII. — 19 [ 289 ] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

predecessors, yet, as they tell us, "we saw that the cal- 
culations upon which all flying-machines had been 
based were unreliable, and that all were simply groping 
in the dark. Having set out with absolute faith in the 
existing scientific data, we were driven to doubt one 
thing after another, till finally, after two years of ex- 
periment, we cast it all aside, and decided to rely 
entirely upon our own investigations. Truth and 
error were everywhere so intimately mixed as to be 
indistinguishable. Nevertheless, the time expended in 
preliminary study of books was not misspent, for they 
gave us a good general understanding of the subject, 
and enabled us at the outset to avoid effort in many 
directions in which results would have been hope- 
less." 

From mere gliding machines without self-con- 
tained power the brothers progressed through the vari- 
ous stages of achievement until in the fall of 1903 they 
had created the type of flying-machine now made so 
familiar to everyone through the pictorial publications. 
Incidentally they had invented and constructed their 
own gasoline motor for furnishing the power — an 
accomplishment of no mean importance in itself. 
On December 17th, 1903, in the presence of a small 
company of witnesses who had braved the cold, the 
Wright machine, carrying one of the brothers, made a 
short but successful flight — the first ever accom- 
plished in which a machine carrying a passenger had 
raised itself by its own power, sailed a certain distance 
in free flight, yet subject to guidance, and landed itself 
and its passenger safely. Mr. Hiram Maxim's machine 

[290] 



THE TRIUMPH OF THE AEROPLANE 

had, indeed, lifted itself and its passengers, but it sailed 
unguided through the air, and it could in no sense be 
said to have made a flight comparable to that of a bird 
or a bat. The Wright machine, on the other hand, 
progressed through the air under guidance of its pass- 
enger, rising or settling, or turning to right or left as he 
wished. Its progress constituted, in other words, a 
veritable flight. 

Yet the problem of perfectly controlled flight under 
all ordinary conditions was by no means completely 
mastered. The principle was correct, but there were 
endless details to be worked out. The embodiment 
of these is the Wright flying-machine of the present time. 

In the Wright aeroplane the lifting power is obtained 
by two parallel horizontal planes of canvas stretched 
over retaining-frames, placed with their long diameters 
transversely to the direction of flight, as in the case of 
the wings of a bird. At a little distance, in front of 
these, are placed two horizontal parallel rudders, and 
at the back two parallel vertical rudders. The machine 
is mounted on huge skids, which resemble giant sled- 
runners in shape, but lighter and more flexible, and is 
driven by two wooden-bladed propellers not unlike 
some of the types of ship-propellers. For stability in 
flight under all kinds of atmospheric conditions this 
machine has shown itself to be a true flying-machine, 
capable of navigating the air in any direction at the 
will of the operator, and remaining in flight a length 
of time dependent entirely upon the amount of fuel 
carried. 

The stability of this machine, particularly in a 
[291] 



THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 

transverse direction, has proved far greater than that of 
any of its predecessors or contemporaries. The two 
horizontal rudder- planes mounted in front maintain 
the fore-and-aft stability; while keeping the machine 
on an even keel is accomplished by varying the angle 
of incidence by warping the two main planes, — this 
being, indeed, a vitally important feature of the mechan- 
ism. In this manner a greater lift on the low side and 
a diminished lift on the high side is obtained, this being 
maintained manually, as is the fore-and-aft stability. 
Since the warping of the wings of the machine would 
tend to deflect it from its course, the apparatus is so 
arranged that a single lever controls the flexible portion 
of the wings and the vertical rudder, the motion of the 
latter counteracting the disturbing influence that would 
otherwise result from the twisting of the wing- tips. 
The discovery of this combination gave the finishing 
touches to the aeroplane, and made it a manageable 
mechanism. In other words, it made the flying machine 
a machine in which man could fly. 

This mechanism was patented in 1906, and the patent 
office specifications then became accessible to other 
experimenters. The French scientific workers had for 
some time recognized the success of the Wright brothers' 
efforts, even when most Americans were still skeptical. 
Now that the manner in which this success had been 
obtained was disclosed, numerous experimenters began 
copying the Wright brothers' successful machine, 
making sundry modifications, while still adhering to 
the main principles through which success had been 
obtained. The first of these experimenters to win 

[292] 



THE TRIUMPH OF THE AEROPLANE 

the Wright model will become altogether obsolete. 
But this can have no possible effect upon the position 
that the Wright brothers themselves must always hold 
in the history of scientific progress. The men who fly 
from New York to San Francisco, or from New York to 
London, will be carrying out the work of the Dayton 
pioneers; and no future accomplishment of the heavier- 
than-air machine can possibly rank in historical im- 
portance with that first flight in the presence of wit- 
nesses made December 17, 1903. Then and there it 
was successfully demonstrated that the last difficulty, so 
far as joining theory and practice was concerned, had 
been mastered. Potentially, from that moment, the 
conquest of the air was complete; and the names of 
the conquerors as all the world knows, and as through- 
out the future all must remember, are Wilbur and 
Orville Wright. 



[301] 



APPENDIX 

REFERENCE LIST AND NOTES 
CHAPTER II 

THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS 

(pp. 77-79). The Great Eastern. The quotation is from 
Ancient and Modern Ships, by Sir George C. V. Holmes, K.C.V.O., 
London, 1906. 

CHAPTER III 

SUBMARINE VESSELS 

(pp. 95, 98). The first submarine. As stated in the text the 
quotation is from a letter written to Thomas Jefferson by David 
Bushnell, and published in the Transactions oj the American 
Philosophical Society in 1789. 

(pp. 104-105). A successful diving boat. The quotation is 
from The Naval History oj the Civil War, by Admiral Porter. 

CHAPTER IV 

THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 

(pp. 127, 128). George Stephenson's locomotive of 1825. The 
quotation is from The History 0} the First Locomotive in America, 
by William H. Brown, New York 1874. 

[303] 



APPENDIX 



CHAPTER VI 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTRIC RAILWAYS 

(pp. 179-181). Early experimental railways. The quotation 
is from the article on " Street and Electric Railways," by Thomas 
Commerford Martin, in the Special Report of the U. S. Census 
Office on Street and Electric Railways, Washington, 1905. 

CHAPTER IX 

NAVIGATING THE AIR 

(p. 247). Henson's studies of the flying-machine. The quota- 
tion is from Travels in Space, by E. Seton Valentine and F. L. 
Tomlinson, New York, 1902. 

CHAPTER X 

THE TRIUMPH OF THE AEROPLANE 

(p. 275). How the air supports a heavier-than-air mechanism. 
The quotation is from an article on "The Flying Machine," 
by Professor S. P. Langley, in McClure's Magazine for June, 1897. 

(p. 284). Langley's aerodrome. The description is from' 
Professor Langley's own account in McClure's Magazine, above 
cited. 

(pp. 289, 290). Experiments of the Wright brothers. The 
quotation is from an article on "The Wright Brothers' Aeroplane," 
by Orville and Wilbur Wright, in The Century Magazine for 
September, 1908. 

(p. 298). Cross-country flight by French officers. The quota- 
tion is from the Scientific American of June 18, 1910. This 
periodical has shown great interest in the new science of aeronau- 
tics, and was the first to offer a trophy for long-distance flying — 
a trophy that was won for the years 1908 and 1909 by Mr. 
Glenn H. Curtiss. The Wright brothers have declined to compete 
for prizes; otherwise "records" for cross-country flying and the 
like would doubtless have advanced even more rapidly than 
has been the case. 



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